Waiting for WiMax

Computerworld - Rent-A-Center, a retailer with 3,000 stores and 7,000 trucks in North America, is holding out for a single, ubiquitous mobile network technology. "It is very difficult to find a consistent service across the entire country," says CIO Tony Fuller. This is problematic because Rent-A-Center managers responsible for multiple stores can traverse three states in the same day, he says.

Fuller thinks mobile WiMax might solve the problem. The technology promises about 1.6Mbit/sec. per subscriber, outstripping the bandwidth of today's broadband cellular networks. Sprint Nextel Corp. is actively testing WiMax, and Intel Corp., a key developer of the technology, says it is also in trials with other carriers. Intel plans to embed mobile WiMax connections directly into laptop motherboards next year.

"We're looking for one technology rather than one provider," Fuller says. "If the user has to figure out what kind of connectivity is available, that's awkward. If it can be transparent, that's worth its weight in gold."

With the advent of mobile WiMax, Fuller hopes his company will need to train people on only one technology and use just one connection in each device. "If you add up the number of people I have to cover, times the cost of multiple network connections each, that gets [expensive]," he says.

Such benefits aren't guaranteed, however, considering that today's competing cellular service offerings, although based on the same technology, don't use compatible connection gear. "I haven't seen a product that supports both Sprint EV-DO and Verizon EV-DO in a single card," says K.C. Condit, Rent-A-Center's director of technical services.