Wimaxing Linux

Connect these dots:

• After going through a complicated merger with Sprint-Nextel's wireless broadband operation, Clearwire expects to add headcount (in a down economy!) as it rolls out WiMax services across the country. The new entity will be called "Clear".
• Clear expects "Mobile WiMax" download speeds to reach "10 to 15 Mbps" within two years
• The merger was supported by an investment of $3.2 billion by Bright House Networks, Comcast, Google, Intel and Time Warner Cable.
• Google wishes to see Linux-based Android devices work on the network. Says Ars Technica, "Even though Google partners with just a subset of the industry, the availability of unencumbered devices with Google services requires competitive moves toward openness from other carriers." The key word is "unencumbered".
• Intel, maker of WiMax chipsets, has been investing heavily in WiMax device development and network deployment. Recently it joined the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) in Taiwan to jointly establish an "enabling center" for Moblin, which calls itself "a Linux-based platform optimized for the next generation of mobile devices including Netbooks, Mobile Internet Devices, and In-vehicle infotainment systems". On that last front, Intel is working with Wind River on Moblin-enabled "automotive infotainment stack". Says Linux Devices, "Wind River hopes the latter will appear in products from 'Tier 1' automotive equipment makers, and it lists Bosch, BMW Group, Delphi, and Magneti Marelli among the companies 'actively supporting' its efforts to 'drive Linux' so to speak into the automotive infotainment market. Intel Capital is also putting $11.5 million into Taiwan's VMAX Telecom, which also plans to roll out WiMax data services.
• Linpus, also based in Taiwan, is joining the Moblin movement. Linpus is behind the Linux-based Acer Aspire One netbook.
• Chetan Sharma Consulting says the ARPU (average revenue per user) for voice in the U.S. is on a downward trend and "data ARPU will become a more dominant factor of the overall APRU mix by the end of 2009. The percentage contribution from data is likely to exceed 25% by the end of 2008 and 30% by the end of 2009." Sourcing a report by Analysis Mason, Gigaom reports that "By 2015, data will account for 94 percent of total wireless network traffic in developed regions."
• BusinessWeek reports that netbooks are "cannibalizing PC and laptop sales".

That's just a small sampling of the rumblings where Linux and mobile data meet. But the photo above also shows how WiMax cells are actually being rolled out. For more on future of mobile data developments, see "The Most Personal Device", inside the back cover..

- Doc Searls