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The CEO of an Australian communications company sparked controversy last week with a blistering critique of WiMax at a conference in Thailand, arguing that wireless broadband technology is a "disaster" that has "failed miserably."

But as comments from Buzz Broadband Pty. Ltd. chief Garth Freeman echoed through the blogosphere, other companies involved in WiMax asserted that his difficulties stem from Buzz's particular approach to using the technology, not to any inherent flaws in the standard. Airspan Networks Inc. [AIRN] and Sprint Nextel Corp. [S] say Freeman's criticisms do not reflect the technology's capabilities. In some blogs, the companies posted their retorts in the section for reader comments.

According to Australian telecom publication CommsDay, Freeman claims that WiMax quality declines greatly in transmissions beyond two kilometers when there is not a clear "line-of-sight" between parts of the wireless network. Line of sight refers to the path between a a transmitter and an antenna, and can be blocked by trees, buildings, hills or other impediments. Indoor performance of WiMax is also poor, Freeman says, and networking issues create latency in transmissions that impairs Internet telephony.

Airspan, which provided equipment for the Australian outfit's WiMax deployment in 2006, in a statement says that Buzz opted for less costly equipment that limited its range and contends that the company underinvested in its network. Airspan also maintains that parts of Buzz's network that carried traffic between wireless transmitters were insufficient.

"Airspan even went so far as to offer to fund a third-party analysis to help Buzz understand these issues," wrote the equipment company's chief marketing officer, Declan Byrne. "Both Airspan's help and third-party assistance were refused by Mr. Freeman."

Byrne adds that "we exhausted all avenues to help this customer re-engineer their core network and resolve these service issues. In the end, with Mr. Freeman rejecting help from the outside, the technical and financial resources of Buzz Broadband were not sufficient to deploy a functioning network to the satisfaction of its customers."

Sprint Nextel is building out a WiMax network. A spokesman says the ailing wireless giant uses a different version of the technology that will not present the same problems. "Buzz Broadband was operating a fixed WiMax service that used 3.5 GHz spectrum -- it requires line-of-sight," the spokesman says. "Sprint is working with mobile WiMax in 2.5Ghz spectrum, which does not require [line of sight] and has better building penetration." - Chris Nolter

See March 24 post from Epicenter
See March 24 post from Bits
See March 20 story from CommsDay
See March 18 story from TheDeal.com

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