^So are you confident that the WiMAX network here in the land of stupid cell service will be usable with the new 810? Because of the sorry state of the cell companies and the unusable data plans I don't even own a cell phone and rely solely on my N800 over SIP/WiFI. And what areas are being covered? I can't get a a single company to respond to my queries. They seem to only concentrate on unserved areas such as the far north and rural areas like Milton. Not a word on whether or not I can bring my own device. The brick modems that bell <spit> and rogers <spit> offer are of course not what I'm interested in.


And it is definitely true that up here cell service and in particular wireless data service is a joke. It doesn't work where I need it and where it does work it is outrageously expensive. WiMAX has big promise but right now I'm doubtful that the incumbents would give up their monopoly and terrible service. Even at 1/2 the cost it would be too expensive.

The question is not "Why WIMAX", but "Why not HSDPA?" Especially for an Internet Tablet.

To be "surf anywhere" the device needs to support wireless internet access that is available everywhere.

That's not 802.11, that's for the home, university, maybe a coffee shop or airport lounge. It gets a little better if you add paid hot spots, but that never took off here and anyway everywhere != densely populated areas of big cities.

That's not WIMAX either. No service in sight here, nobody outside of the tech crowd has ever heard of it. Seems more like a replacement for a conventional DSL/cable/fiber, read: stationary, net access to me.

An then there's HSDPA, which is dirt cheap (f. ex. EUR 20 / GB pay as you go without a contract, USIM free) and available everywhere (every Austrian city I've ever been to, worst that can happen is that it drops to GPRS).
USB-HSDPA modems for laptops can be had for ~EUR 100 so the cost of the radio can't be the problem either.

I really don't get it ...

Sure it will work? HAHA, no... hoping... praying, even... possibly. But... I have my hopes. The rollout of WiMAX in Canada-land might make it a tempting target market for Nokia. This is my hope at least.

And no kidding about the customer service right now, it's quite abysmal... BUT I seemed to get the impression that they weren't marketing the system for mainstream use in densely populated areas... It's quite nice of them to not force not-ready-for-primetime systems on the customer base.

We namely got it by forcing bell's hand. To be honest, I would never personally deal with Bell in any way shape or form... they've given me far too much grief in the past. Still, we have a good corporate relationship with Bell, so things started moving a bit quicker. I'm sure a regular consumer could get the system as well, it's just not as predominant as their other services.

Also, don't even get me started on a proper map for coverage areas... even the stuff they have is a joke. Still, there is progress being made. Areas with large rural or sub-urban areas are mainly being targeted, but so are bigger cities. I believe the current hesitation is that they don't want to overload the infrastructure before they even get it off the ground... but this seems very unlike big-telecos normal course of action.

Personally, I think WiMAX is further along than Bell/Rogers give it credit... certainly seems further along than the Xohm service in the US even though they're marketing it as available there; but for now neither Rogers nor Bell want to tip their hand as both of them have heavy investment in our [highly substandard] cellular networks. Give it time, and as we see more wimax capable devices they'll move on things. [My hope at least]. As it stands right now, the only devices they have for sale are modem bricks that are clunky and sad.

While I agree partly, and simply cannot comment on more evolved cellular networks, I'll just point out that WiMAX makes sense here.

Our cellular networks aren't bad... they're remarkably bad. I think the telecos here are just trying to jump the bandwagon and get onboard with a potential service that is more future proof, and has better coverage rates.

If WiMAX provided what it says it will provide, then it could save them some time and money... and make them look good from an "embracing emerging technology" point of view. Canada has about the population of NYC, yet it's spread out over an area that is several orders of magnitude larger... and all these people want, nay, *expect* high-speed networks. Call it pretentious, but if you could deliver a one-solution-fits-all system that handles all networking traffic over that area [and didn't have a pre-existing infrastructure in place] you might think differently as well...

For places like the US, Europe and Australia... I'm not sure. There's a chance we'll see some break-in with WiMAX but only time will tell. HSDPA makes sense where the towers are already in place, I defiantly agree with you there. I'm not sure what market they're going to try and sell to *ESPECIALLY* when everyone already owns an HSDPA capable cellular phone.

That's exactly it ... Will, might ... my point was, HSDPA is deployed and mainstream in Europe now. Nobody needs a tablet with wireless connectifity that might be available in 5 years time. I'd expected the EU market to be big enough to warrant even a custom device version, if need be.

Hm. Connecting via mobile phone is tedious, error prone and depletes two batteries at once. Maybe if there were cheap (<EUR 50 with contract) HSDPA phones that paired effortlessly with everything and contracts with both cheap data and voice on the same USIM. At the moment most data service is data-only.

But I'd much rather dump the cell phone entirely and put a HSDPA USIM in every mobile device I own. They're as good as free, after all.

Oh well, there's a bunch of MIDs on the horizon that'll supposedly have integrated HSDPA ... perhaps WIMAX will be here till they're out :-)

Nokia makes no money from cellular service fees and the cellular networks/Qualcomm are so powerful in NA that Nokia is failing to capture potential profits even as an OEM for HSDPA devices. Nokia stands to gain $$$ if they can participate in another Mobile Internet model without the cellular networks taking their pound of flesh. Nokia has plenty of HSDPA devices; the tablet/WiMax is their end-around strategy, not that I necessarily agree of course...

Yep, we're agreeing I think.

HSDPA in Europe, etc = likely the way to go.
WiMAX in other markets = possibly *a* way to go.

Besides, someone has to be the guinea pig, right?

Yeah, I like this as well... more options for more markets... it's too bad that WiMAX implementations vary from country to country though.

You're jumping too early. Patience grasshopper. And WiMAX will have enough of a reach that, if properly-deployed, means anything but stationary access within supported areas.

And yes, I know the size of the IF.

I know very little about HSDPA but two things: having a standard that works over most of the world is a good thing, U.S. != world. And, I don't own a cell phone and don't plan on getting one as long as I'm living in Canada with the unacceptable cellphone service here. I'm much too comfy with my own SIP system and not likely to switch anytime soon if ever.

So, if HSDPA can be had on a device and I can run simple fast data vs voice specific or gawd forbid anything that they claim as data as it is currently offered up here I won't care if it is HSDPA or WiMAX. Just give me internet on the go at very low rates (what WiMAX promises) and I'm very happy. If it is anything like a cell service that says if I drive 20 minutes east I'm suddenly "roaming" and must pay insane rates to do anything then I'm not buying. WiFI doesn't care where I am so I always know what it will cost.

The irony is killing me... On the one hand I have zero need to be online while driving and where I drive cell doesn't work anyway (I rarely drive highways). But I do drive through the area that I know is being served by WiMAX (rural Milton, Ontario). But I can't use my own device on that network (brick modem only). The coverage maps of course show my residence as being covered (semi urban near the lake) but since we're covered by other means I can't get anyone to even offer WiMAX here. I tried using a cell instead of a landline years ago but again, coverage inside any house that I've lived in was terrible. So I'm not looking at bell <spit> or rogers <spit> for the next generation of wireless.