A couple of interesting Wi-Fi items in the news. Actually, they’re “WiMax” items, to be technically accurate.

Sprint and Clearwire to deploy WiMax nationwide

From ZDNet:

Sprint and Clearwire are pooling resources in a venture that could take WiMax nationwide.

The two companies said Thursday that they plan to build a national WiMax (4G) network. The partnership, which is a 20-year agreement with three 10-year renewal terms, will enable a “broader and more efficient deployment of a mobile WiMAX broadband network than either company could accomplish on its own.” WiMax, or “worldwide interoperability for microwave access,” is a standard that allows wireless signals to be sent over long distances from towers that can cover up to 3,000 square miles.

The official press release is available here.

WiFi Planet reported last month that Sprint’s CTO Barry West “argued that the killer app for 4G Wireless is broadband Internet, which today means DSL and cable modem since Wi-Fi hotspots don’t offer total coverage. WiMAX changes the equation, and with chipsets in every notebook, a real mobile broadband economy can emerge…. West went on to boast that Sprint-Nextel will be able to deliver a tenfold improvement in price per bit on WiMAX against other wireless technologies.”

The article goes on to talk about how West isn’t daunted by the iPhone at all (which offers its service exclusively through AT&T), and believes Sprint’s WiMax network will be superior, both in quality and price. They’re targeting larger markets first, of course, so there’s no telling when such service could come to Peoria. But for what it’s worth, according to Indeed.com, there was a job posting 15 days ago for a “MGR 4G/WIMAX DESIGN AND DEPLOYMENT” in Farmington, Illinois. Employer: Sprint.

WiMax closer to home

Here’s something else interesting I learned recently: a Peoria-based company called SVI was recently bought out by a California-based company called Oxford Media. The former SVI is now a subsidiary company called OxfordSVI and is still located on Altorfer Drive. Their main business is providing video-on-demand services and high-speed internet access to hotels, but they also plan to roll out a broader WiMax network eventually, utilizing antennas on the tops of their subscriber hotels.

According to this SEC filing, OxfordSVI plans to offer not only WiMax broadband internet access to surrounding homes and businesses, but also on-demand movies in high-definition:

Our WiMax offering, when available, is expected to allow customers within a seven mile radius of each antenna (installed at participating MDU and hospitality properties) to access the Internet at speeds as fast or faster than existing broadband systems. This high-speed delivery will allow access to other services such as Video on Demand movies. The quality of the movies being delivered on this system will no longer be limited by bandwidth thus making available high definition broadcasts to all homes and businesses within the 7 mile range. The consumer will see high-quality content delivered over their television sets, even though the content is actually distributed through our media servers from the same satellite network utilized to distribute the content to our MDU and hospitality customers.

Before you get too excited, the SEC filing also says that they’re “not devoting resources to WiMAX development as there is only a limited revenue opportunity for this product in the near-term as compared to the opportunity in the delivery of content to the hospitality market.” But it’s an interesting idea, and Sprint’s recently-announced build-out expansion could accelerate their plans if WiMax becomes popular. You can see a more in-depth description of their long-range WiMax plans on their website.