Sprint Nextel President Keith Cowan to Keynote WCAI Symposium

WCAI recently confirmed Keith Cowan, President, Strategic Planning & Corporate Initiatives, Sprint Nextel Corporation, as a keynote speaker on November 6 at WCAI's Silicon Valley Symposium. Keith is a key player in the negotiations leading to the new Clearwire deal, in which Intel, Google, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks agreed to invest $3.2 billion in company combining Clearwire and Sprint Nextel's XOHM. I'm really looking forward to this opportunity to hear about Keith's views on New Clearwire and Sprint Nextel's future.

Hands-On with WiMAX at XOHM's Launch Event in Baltimore

I was lucky enough to get invited to XOHM's launch event today in Baltimore and try out the service. It's fast - really fast. I watched a Hulu video on a WiMAX-enabled laptop, and the video never stuttered, even though there were numerous other users nearby. I walked away convinced - WiMAX in the 2.5 GHz band is real and its here now.

Impressions from WiMAX World

I was at WiMAX World in Chicago last week, where I spent almost as much time talking as listening. At the 4G Executive Summit, a developing theme was whether LTE would predominate or the LTE and WiMAX standards would eventually merge. This theme ultimately took a backseat to the even bigger news at WiMAX World surrounding the launch of Sprint Nextel's Xohm WiMAX network in Baltimore. No matter where the 4G ecosystem goes in the years to come, WiMAX is here now, and according to most reports, is working very well. I'm going to have a chance to see the network on Wednesday at the official launch party, and I hope to have a report here soon. That is not to say we won't see significant LTE deployments too. I stand by what I said at the 4G Executive Summit: "each one can play an important role." The WiMAX party is just starting a little earlier.