There’s no surprise in a fact that a large country like Russia is looking into wireless technologies like WiMAX. On a paper, WiMAX seems promising, but apparently real-life experience for some folks was painful, to say the least.
However, that doesn’t stop VCs into pouring out cash into the local WiMAX providers. In the past three months, three different operators have raised close to $75 million in venture investments:
- MetroMax recently raised $20 million from Volga One River Capital Partners,
- Tascom got $15 from Quadriga Capital Russia, and
- Enforta went home with $40 million from Bessemer Venture Partners.
In a sharp contrast, Clearwire got $1.6 billion to get its WiMAX network running. Russian labor is cheaper for sure and there are some very educated people coming out from Russian universities, but still — the amount involved seems ridiculously low compared to what Clearwire got. We’ll be watching all WiMAX news and get back to you as soon as we hear something interesting on the subject…
[Via: GigaOm]