I saw a good article in the Wall Street Journal last week about a Bon Jovi concert that Sprint/Nextel were going to host in December. It turns out the first fifteen minutes delivered a blank screen. Then glory of glories the band appeared, only to disappear over and over again. The message read "We are experiencing technical problems. Please come back in a few minutes." Now I know you are tempted to laugh. But this is no laughing matter for the cell carriers who really need new revenue streams. After all, most everyone has a cell phone. So raw customer growth will be blunted in the years to come. Additional services are the best option. Current offerings for music have got much press but the price is egregious ranging from .99c for a song up to $2.50. Goodness knows what they think they can charge for video. So the strong need is there. The platform is not. Enter WiMax. Sprint has the best chance to take advantage of this with their wide 2.5 GHz spectrum holdings. But will they? I am not at all sure they will. They may go with a Qualcomm solution or a UMTS derived one.   At the end of the day efficient content will be IP based. And technologies with roots in voice calling seem to me to be an expensive bandaid when a tourniquet may be needed. Just some food for thought on a Friday morning. Tim Sanders tim@thefinalmile.net  www.thefinalmile.net  www.wimaxglobalnews.com