Will EVDO save cellular?

EVDO, or broadband for cellular telephones, may be the one chance cellular has to beat back the VoIP onslaught, which makes cellular irrelevant if you have access to a wireless Internet signal. Verizon, like most phone companies, likes to bet on technologies that are expensive and thereby easy to control--you can't just go out and start an EVDO business the same way you can start a wireless Internet business.

To use EVDO on your laptop, you have to buy an EVDO card and pay for access to the network (on top of your current cellular bill). But it is very fast, and the big advantage EVDO has right now is that you can get an EVDO signal in a lot more places than WiFi, and it goes further. So EVDO could snatch cellular service back from the grave.

Is there anothe disrupter out there? There almost always is, and it's WiMax. WiMax signals go farther than cellular signals, and WiMax is much faster than EVDO. And almost anyone will be able to finance a WiMax wireless business. EVDO has to capture a large chunk of the market quickly.

Where would I put my money? On WiMax.

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