WiMax: Overhyped & Not Yet Over Here

[Jonathon Watkins]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3600112' target='_blank'>http://www.economist.com/business/d...tory_id=3600112</a><br /><br /></div><i>"To hear some of its more enthusiastic proponents you might conclude that WiMax, an emerging wireless-broadband technology, was about to take over the world. WiMax is akin to a long-range version of the popular Wi-Fi technology that allows computers close to a small base-station to surf the internet without wires. Whereas Wi-Fi's range is limited to a few tens of metres, WiMax can, in theory, work over tens of kilometres, allowing huge areas to be blanketed with wireless coverage. Hence the claims that WiMax will bring internet access to the 5 billion people who currently lack it, or that it will render expensive “third-generation” (3G) mobile networks redundant. The reality, however, is that WiMax has been hugely overhyped. "</i><br /><br />Just about every new technology is overhyped when it's first launched and as ever, after the hype comes the backlash. This Economist article does a good job of summing up the current WiMax situation, which is that it has a lot of potential, but no current shipping devices. The WiMax consortium haven't even certified any devices yet, but have just announced that pre-certification testing will begin in July. This means devices will turn up at the end of year at the earliest. The (unfinished) specification for the next generation of WiMax should support mobile access for laptops and PDAs etc., but the power consumption is still estimated to be 10% more than today's Wi-Fi chips. Overall, it's not looking too good for mobile access at the moment.

[ADBrown]

I'd be thrilled if it were only 10% more power than WiFi.

[OSUKid7]

How do they see WiMAX and WiFi working together? The way I understood it, WiMAX was a WAN standard, and you would have a sort of WiMAX modem that would connect to a router -- much like a cable/DSL modem does today. I can understand some would want a WiMAX receiver in the laptop/PPC itself, but was that what was really meant for WiMAX?

[Fred44]

WiMax will support 802.11b/g connections at short range. For the longer range and the higher bandwidth you will need to use a WiMax (802.16) adapter.

WiMax will change the world. The goal is to put them on all the cell towers to provided access to billions of people. The speeds are up to 120Mb. This can replace telephone service with VoIP, it can replace TV SD/HDTV video feeds to the house (HDTV is 18Mb per channel), and it will provide high speed internet access to the house. I look forward to the day we can fire the cable company and the local phone company for broadband, phone, and TV. With WiMax you will have a choice of many providers that will lower over cost of everything and get rid of all the regulatory fees we have to pay.

[beq]

So does the WiMax standard specify the same 2.4GHz frequency band as Wi-Fi b/g (not a)? Anyways I seem to recall the term MAN being bandied about in the past (Metropolitan Area Network)...

So I need my next PPC to have Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, WiMax, Bluetooth 2.0, Infrared, GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS (or CDMA variant), 16-channel GPS, and Ultra-Wideband UWB (perhaps as the basis for the proposed Wireless USB or Wireless 1394 specs)? I guess software radio is the future :)

[F_B_i]

bitequator :) don't forget about wireless power source :P

[dlinker]

Here in Sydney, Australia we have a WiMAX provider (well as WiMAX is not officially ratified as a standard, it's not officially WiMAX) competing well with ADSL and Cable ISPs.

The service is from http://www.unwired.com.au

Basically it's a portable broadband connection at the moment not a mobile broadband connection. Huh, you say, what's he mean?

It means, within their coverage area (a large part of Metropolitan area) youcan conecct to the Internet using your WiMAX modem - which is about the size of a typical home router. This gives you a (wired) Ethernet port which you can plug in to your PC or plug in to a WiFi router to then get Internet access with around 100m of your modem.

why would you want that? It's great for people who are too far from their telephone Excahnge for DSL, or who live in an apartment where the phone cabling is shared and won't support DSL. Also good for people who move around a bit. Move apartments andf you just take the wiMAX modem to the new place and plug it in to the power and off you go. It can use a battery but only gives a bit over an hour of power. Also it doesn't roam between towers - so you can't use it while in a moving vehicle.

It's very popular here as it is price comparable with ADSL.
No hassle connection - just go to your nearest electircal appliance or computer superstore and buy the modem. Go home, plug it in to the power and your PC and off you go. People are now not getting a phone line at home. They use their mobile (cell) phone for voice and Unwired for data.

[Mobile_Bear]

I just came back from a Business trip to Mexico, I am consulting a company that has offices there.

A company is offering WiMax packaged to residential users, in Mexico City metropolitan area: 256kbps DSL, and VoIP. $70 monthly rate.
Just looked at the ads, did not found anyone already using it.