Tokyo getting on the citywide WiMax bandwagon

Tokyo may not be the first city to rollout WiMax coverage (actually, for once, that title would appear to go to an American city—go fig!), but equipment manufacturer Airspan's going to be supplying Tokyo with the gear for launching a trial city-wide rollout in the 2nd quarter, and expected blanket-coverage of Tokyo thereafter. Something worth noting however: as you may or may not remember, WiMax isn't even done yet. And still, some might wonder why they'd bother deploying WiMax to a place like Tokyo, where everyone has 100mbit fiber lines to the home, and undoubtedly extensive WiFi coverage. So why? Well, because it's freaking Tokyo, that's why.

[Luke @ Dec 19th 2005 1:05AM]

Not "everyone" has 100MB fiber connection at home in Tokyo - the fiber is pretty hard to setup here. ADSL is pretty common tho. Should be pretty nice to have full coverage but will probably require you to pay $10 a month to use like the existing WIFI-enabled locations here.

[Pip @ Dec 19th 2005 1:05AM]

As the first commentator mentioned there are many places in and around Tokyo where you can't get fibre to the home.

Though its true that technology wise in many areas of Tokyo its all a bit 'William Gibson' please remember in most places, specifically the burbs, its a bit more 'Willy Wonka'.....

[blankoboy @ Dec 19th 2005 1:05AM]

I have both ADSL (50Mbps down - YahooBB) and Tepco Hikari (FTTH) 100Mbps up and down. The 1st 7 months of Hikari service is free which is a nice bonus =).

[Anon Bob @ Dec 19th 2005 1:05AM]

CARMI,

Before you post in here:

Stop posting -- I mean advertising -- in the comments. Everytime you postvertise I gag on your awful digital existentialist comments. If I wanted a moral for an engadget article I'd read a fable.

Thanks Aesop.

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000727035343/#comments

[fanboy ants @ Dec 19th 2005 1:05AM]

k, anon, get a life. I mean really, if they you actually have time to comment on blogs before someone comments, warning them not to comment, that is pretty pathetic.

[Anon Bob @ Dec 19th 2005 1:05AM]

True, but the dude has yet to see the angry mob he's created. He fires off awful generic comments while advertising and doesn't come back. I figure I'd try to beat him to it, and from the looks of it the cure is worse than the disease. Sorry.

[OddManOut @ Dec 19th 2005 1:05AM]

I agree with 'Luke' (#1). Despite it's hightech image/reputation, not EVERYONE in Tokyo has broadband yet (but I must say, even the marginal 'slums' in Tokyo proper are remarkably clean and even seemed 'safe' at 3am...stupid jet lag). Though it wouldn't surprise me if the next time I was there I saw fiberlines running into the blue tarp shanties in the parks.

or at LEAST coax...

And to be honest, wifi hotspots were not all that ubiquitous when I last did any war walking there (though that was 2.5 years ago). FREE ones anyway...hot 'cyber cafes' were easy enough to find, but you had to pay. I think I'd rather pay $10 (in yen of course) a month to the city as opposed to $5 (still in yen) an hour everytime I wanna check my e-mail while out of my capsule.

Kind of a moot point I guess...with MASSIVE porn in every book shop/grocery store/vending machine hub in/kiosk in Tokyo, what does anyone there need the internet for anyway :)