vnunet.com analysis: WiMax cleared for take-off

IEEE approval paves the way for deployments next year

Tom Sanders in California, vnunet.com 12 Dec 2005

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' recent approval of the proposed WiMax wireless 802.16e standard will pave the way for deployments of the wide area broadband wireless technology by the third quarter of next year, industry experts have told vnunet.com.

WiMax offers a high speed networking technology operating at speeds of up to 75Mbps at a range of 2km to 10km in urban areas and up to 50km in rural areas.

Although the ratification of 802.16e is a good start, there is still more work that needs to be done, warned Peter Jarich, principal analyst for wireless infrastructure at Current Analysis.

"The standard is really just about the interface. We need to make sure that there is a handoff between cells, and we need to create end-to-end services and build out solutions," he told vnunet.com.

The 802.16e standard adds functionalities to the WiMax standard that enables mobile devices to use the technology. It allows users to move from one radio to another and arranges for regional roaming between service providers.

The technology is being pushed by a consortium of companies led by Intel. The standard's backers consider WiMax an important new wireless technology that can deliver connectivity to rural areas that are out of reach of wired broadband connections, like cable or DSL, and in developing economies.

Intel is working to integrate WiMax radios with its chipsets in a move similar to the Centrino chipset that pushed Wi-Fi.

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