In December I moved house but the fiber provider couldn't hook up my broadband for three weeks, and for some reason all my new neighbors had their Wi-Fi access points locked down.
As luck would have it, I had my WiMAX-equipped laptop and after discovering I had a great signal anywhere in the house, I used it as my sole way of surfing the net, something of a life saver to a geek like me!
I helped broker a meeting with the good people of TriMet to get five WiMAX equipped cameras and GPS units installed into the drivers cabs of five different TriMet MAX trains.
The TriMet control room can now see exactly what the driver sees in real time, in full color complete with GPS coordinates shown on a map. To my mind it is a superbdemonstration of WiMAX as a robust broadband technology that in this instance, allows TriMet to enhance route safety and security. It's all about situational awareness!
The solution works great and as my wife Bobbi will tell you, it is strangely mesmerizing just watching a speeding train race through town in real time.
I volunteered to be part of the Portland launch team, and ended up escorting media and wireless analysts around downtown. The image below shows me on the left. Sitting is Berge Ayvazian, Chief Strategy Officer of the Yankee Group, on a TriMet Street Car during the launch.
Media and analysts got to borrow an Acer NetBook with a WiMAX dongle and were encouraged to surf the web while the train shuttled in between the tall concrete and stone buildings downtown. Of course it worked beautifully.
