September 30, 2008

Zohm Zohm: WiMAX Rolls Out In Baltimore

Although currently in an observational role, cable is no doubt watching closely as Sprint officially bowed in Baltimore Mon its long-awaited WiMAX wireless mobile service. Slated to be a key part of many cable ops' future product bundles, the service must perform, well... like a charm in Charm City and later this year in Chicago and Washington, D.C., in order to nail down an additional $2bln in funding and justify the hefty network investments planned by Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House ( Cfax, 9/22). With Xohm, says Sprint, consumers, businesses and local governments will ultimately get new forms of interactive communications, high-speed mobile Internet browsing, social-networking tools, location-centric services and multimedia including music, video and on-demand products at faster average downlink speeds of 2-4 Mbps. Available service options include Home, On-the-Go, Pick 2 and Daily On-the-Go. Each account save for dailies comes with mail, calendar and chat features, plus personal storage of up to 5GB. Home runs $25/month for the 1st 6 months ($35 thereafter) and through an $80 router offers a wireless alternative to cable or telco broadband service. No install appointments are needed. Offered at $30/month ($45 later) is On-the-Go, which provides a mobile data connection anywhere in the city's service area through a $60 Xohm mobile data card. Certain laptops equipped by Intel with mobile WiMAX do not require a data card. Pick 2 lets customers choose 2 different device types from which to receive mobile data, for $50/month ($65). Available now is a Zohm-ready Internet tablet from Nokia. The Daily feature allows 24-hr Wi-Fi connection without a contract for $10/day.