Manufacturers and service providers are touting the
emerging WiMax wireless technology as a possible rival to wired
broadband services.
"We believe that WiMax can happen, and be widely deployed, and
be a big deal in the next three years the same way Wi-Fi has been a
big deal in the past two years," said Sean Maloney, executive
vice-president and general manager of Intel's communications group,
at the Wireless Communications Association (WCA) International
Technical Symposium & Business Expo in California.
The conference focused on wireless broadband technology, in
particular WiMax, which is based on the IEEE 802.16 family of
standards.
The WiMax Forum, a group of suppliers and service providers,
will, initially, certify products based on the 802.16d standard,
designed for wireless base stations with a range as far as 50km.
The point-to-multipoint technology will not require a direct line
of sight to the customer.
A later version of the standard, 802.16e, will provide a
relatively simple upgrade to access points to support mobile
customers, according to François Draper, vice-president of sales
and marketing at Wavesat and chairman of memberships at the WiMax
Forum.
A single base station could transmit hundreds of megabits per
second of data, but the standard does not define how much of that
capacity a service provider should give an individual customer,
Draper said. Carriers typically would offer 2Mbps or more to a
small or medium-sized business, and 300Kbps to 400Kbps to
consumers.
Intel, which plans to make WiMax chips, expects the technology
to hit the market next year for stationary broadband connectivity
to businesses and homes and backhaul from Wi-Fi hotspots.
Testing has shown such a technology can support the kinds of
services associated with today's DSL (digital subscriber line) and
cable modem services, including video, to homes and businesses in
dense urban areas.
Standardisation has boosted product volume and slashed prices on
IEEE 802.11 wireless Lan equipment. Intel hopes that service
providers will be able to use wireless for affordable broadband in
developing countries.
The 802.16d standard should be essentially complete next month
and approved in March, Draper said. However, the WiMax Forum would
not certify any service provider equipment until the first quarter
of 2005, after defining and carrying out a testing system.
Meanwhile, the IEEE 802.16e working group probably will complete
its specification at roughly the same time that the first 802.16d
products are being certified.
Mobile operator Nextel Communications is studying wireless
broadband technologies, including WiMax, said Barry West, company
executive vice-president and chief technology officer.
Nextel has licensed MMDS (Multipoint Multichannel Distribution
Service) spectrum, in the range of 2.5GHz to 2.7GHz, which is one
area where WiMax could be used.
BellSouth is also considering wireless broadband, particularly
for providing high-speed internet access to potential customers in
less dense areas that have been left out of broadband because of
deployment costs, said Sid Ganju, executive director of corporate
development at BellSouth.
WiMax may open even more doors in the developing world, where
saving the cost of fibre and copper installation is an especially
attractive proposition. Neotec, a consortium of mobile operators in
Brazil, has tested a wireless broadband system with good results,
said José Luiz Frauendorf, Neotec's executive director.
Stephen Lawson writes for IDG News Service