WiMax/XOHM in Baltimore – We’re There!

Sprint has finally come to market with their 4G network with their WiMax based XOHM service in Baltimore, Maryland! It will inevitably be rolling out in markets nationwide in coming months. What exactly IS WiMax/XOHM?

Sprint is holding a press conference in Baltimore to announce and discuss WiMax/XOHM and phandroid will be AT the event to get all the nitty gritty details to report back to you! In short, WiMax is the generic name for Sprint’s 4G network that was sold to a group of tech investors (including Google) that comprise Clearwire. XOHM is Sprint’s branded service that uses WiMax technology. It can be used for home internet, city wide hotspots and mobile phone connections to make the internet MUCH faster.

We’ll report ALL the details to you after the October 8th Baltimore event so make sure to check back into phandroid for more!

In the meantime, people are already up in arms over the fineprint of XOHM service that says, “To ensure a high-quality experience for its entire subscriber base, XOHM may use various tools and techniques designed to limit the bandwidth available for certain bandwidth intensive applications or protocols, such as file sharing.”

Ben Scott, Policy Director of Free Press had this to say: ““We are very troubled by this development and the larger moves across the wireless industry to limit consumer access to the legal content and services of their choice. We hope that Sprint will quickly disclose exactly what tools and techniques it plans to use, and demonstrate why it is necessary to maintain a closed network when consumers demand an open Internet.”

I think people are making this a bigger deal than it should be. Yes, there should probably be details provided on what the cap is and at what point it is triggered. But come on people, the purpose of that fine print is to protect the average person. A few idiots with WiMax that has drone computers auto set to download the entire interwebs 24/7 could easily strain resources at which point your XOHM access could be *gulp* as slow as the iPhone 3G.

And perhaps the network SHOULD be strong enough to handle unlimited people doing unlimited things but its just not realistic. Putting measures into place to protect customers from slow access imposed by the abusive practices of other customers is A-Okay with me. Sure, they should be extremely lenient and not stringent regulations and Sprint should outline exactly what they are… but I’d like to give them the benefit of the doubt.

I think they just saw the disaster that was AT&T’s 3G launch with the iPhone 3G and said, “lets not do it that way.” Once again, come back on the 8th for coverage of the XOHM event in Baltimore!