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November 18, 2004
Fixed Wireless CPE Costs According to Moto
Posted by John Yunker
To get an idea of what a WIMAX CPE is going to cost, it's important to know where the proprietary gear is at right now. Motorola has had a Canopy line of fixed wireless gear for years now and has been fairly open on pricing. So here is what their CPEs are going for these days (screen grab from their Web site):
The ISPs have told me that they need CPEs in the $200 to $100 range to make a go of it in the residential market. But these prices are fine for the enterprise market. So, as I've said before, WiMAX will succeed with enterprises because proprietary equipment is already succeeding.
I had my doubts last year that Motorola was going to stick with Canopy and pursue WiMAX. But it seems that they are staying the course and their acquisition of MeshNetworks says, to me at least, that they'll be looking to provide WiMAX mesh solutions as well.
To address the WiMAX "overhang" issue, Motorola is launching gear that will co-exist with WiMAX unlicensed gear and existing Canopy gear. I'm hearing the term "overhang" a lot these days, which refers to carriers holding back on purchases until this much-hyped WiMAX gear is ready. Motorola wants carriers to buy today and is providing assurances that they will not be stuck with instant-legacy gear next year.
Comments (2)
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Russell Shaw is a specialist in mobile computing, telephony, networking and covers these fields regularly for numerous print and online publications. Russ writes the popular IP Telephony blog on ZDNet and contributes regularly to The Industry Standard blog as well. Author of seven books, Russ' latest book is Wireless Networking Made Easy.
John Yunker is president of 
1. Jesse Kopelman on November 18, 2004 5:40 PM writes...
Mesh is the only way to make unlicensed work, in a real world sense. The thing about Mesh Networks is that unlike a Tropos or a Firetide, their stuff is based on a completely proprietary air-interface, not 802.11. In that sense it is no different than Canopy. I look at the acquisition of Mesh Networks as an effort to beef up the proprietary Canopy line, not as anything to do with WiMax where success will be all about playing the cost advantages that come with standardization
Permalink to Comment2. John Yunker on November 18, 2004 5:45 PM writes...
I don't think Moto can succeed purely on proprietary gear because ISPs don't want that. I think you'll see a mix of both - mesh or otherwise.
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