Earthlink WiMAX Presentation

Bill Tolpegin, Director of Corporate Development, Earthlink gave a presentation on "an operator's perspective of WiMAX." He specifically focused on municipal broadband deployment. "We have been searching the world for alternative broadband, the third pipe to the home. And I think we've found it..."

Municipal Broadband -- "Earthlink's focus is on the public/private partnership model." recently won the contract to build the Philadelphia open access WiFi network.

"If you had told me a year ago that I would be standing in front of this audience, I would have said you were dead wrong. I was fully convinced a year ago that licensed spectrum was the way to go. I thought that the only way to deliver QoS was with licensed spectrum. But having spent the last year doing diligence on WiFi... this stuff is out there and it works. It enhances the fixed line model and provides a mobile experience."

WiMAX provides the backhaul to our local pops. Why are we interested in WiMAX? bandwidth, QoS, services, standards, and a rural model. But there are some big challenges: spectrum, timing, perception, and hardware.