Articles by Jim Barthold, Telecommunications

The agriculture department at the University of Arizona in Tucson is taking “plant management” to a new level with an experimental next-generation wireless trial that literally requires field work. “They’re trying to do some plant diagnostics out in the field and WiMAX, 3G networks, all of those kinds of...

A promising wireless technology is resurfacing even though many in the industry have—for probably the hundredth time— given up on it. WiMAX, said a financial analyst who’s paid to look at such things, is far from dead, despite dire predictions about Sprint Nextel’s commitment and the nonchalance with which...

If the multitudes bidding billions of dollars in the ongoing FCC spectrum auction don’t provide enough evidence that 700 MHz spectrum is a coveted commodity, the WiMAX Forum has emphasized the point with high priority plans to develop a 700 MHz specification/certification road map. The Forum, which in the...

Digital commerce specialist Valista wanted to know what people were talking about during the first day of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, so it did a little “snap poll” of about 100 delegates. The answers it got were surprising. Eighteen percent of respondents suggested the biggest buzz would...

Fujitsu Network Communications has launched a series of mobile WiMAX base stations aimed at filling the holes between wide area coverage and end users within a dense urban or suburban deployment. The Richardson, Texas-based unit will show off the base stations at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. “It’s...

As anticipated, the nation’s two largest WiMAX players, Sprint Nextel and Clearwire, are joining to construct the first seamless nationwide mobile broadband network. Because the proposed alliance includes the exchange of selected 2.5 GHz spectrum, it is subject to review by the Department of Justice and the FCC. If...