Almost every site that has been reporting on the Consumer Electronics Show has had an article on the continuing saga of WiMAX. It is a technology that shows promise, but really has never had its worst case scenarios exposed to the light of day. My personal opinion is because Sprint is the major force behind the project, and like the rollout of its PCS phone network, much ado was made of all the benefits without allowing proper time to be spent on the drawbacks of the system - and the many places that were not covered, the WiMAX rollout should be a very careful undertaking.

Sprint has a bad reputation for over promising and under delivering, so it might be best if they picked up a couple of partners, not just to shoulder the enormous cost load, but also to bring some sanity to the picture.

The idea of WiMAX is great, and the rollout should be slow, steady, and solid - none of these words usually apply to any Sprint endeavor.

The decision makers at Sprint should move cautiously, making sure that each area on the map has high quality, complete, and non-problematic service before progressing to the next area. Customer experience will sell or destroy the system. Positive experiences will cause a clamor for the services, but will also assure those waiting that the waiting time is worthwhile. Negative experiences will remove the desire for most, if not all, and the efforts will be for naught.

Let’s hope that in the last 10 years the executives at Sprint have learned a few lessons about service.

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[tags] Sprint, WiMAX, rollout, service areas, quality of service, PCS [/tags]