

WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) broadband wireless technology has been talked about for many years, but its only just starting to blossom.

It is predicated that by the end of 2010, users in more than 80 US cities may be able to ditch their Wi-Fi in favour of WiMax. It's taken such a long time due WiMax vendors such as Clearwire Communications LLC suffering numerous delays in rolling out services.


Craig Mathias, principal analyst at Farpoint Group, sees WiMax taking a minority stake in the wireless broadband future. "LTE will eventually be a combined broadband voice/data solution that can do everything that WiMax can and more," he said.

Mathias believes that LTE could get up to 80 percent of the global market share in future cellular installations.

"This leaves WiMax with a potential market share that cannot exceed 20 percent - but that's still a huge number, assuming four billion users around 2020 or so," he said. "You do the math. The opportunity is nothing to sneeze at."

The promise of WiMax



In theory, WiMax can also deliver more than 75Mbps data-transfer speeds. In practice, it doesn't have either that range or that speed. But with real-world speeds of up to 9Mps, it's about as fast as today's standard 802.11g (though not as fast as 802.11n), and it offers far greater range than any Wi-Fi technology.

Arthur Giftakis, vice president of engineering at Towerstream, a US WiMax provider for businesses, believes WiMax will deliver "high-speed mobile services that consumers and business users alike are demanding more and more", such as the ability to watch sports highlights on a laptop on the train or download apps on a handheld device.


WiMax incorporates quality of service technologies for prioritising network traffic, and that is particularly important for VoIP and video applications, said Joel Payne, vice president of engineering and operations at Sparkplug, a US ISP serving the business market.


Jesse Jones, owner of Matanuska Wireless, an American data communications company, agreed, citing Internet Protocol television as a technology that can greatly benefit from improved quality of service.

"IPTV via WiMax is one of the most exciting developments," Jones said. However, he added, "there is no word yet" on when the first working IPTV via WiMax models will be available.

Broadband speed test

NEXT PAGE: How fast, how far, how much?

  1. LET is hot on its heels and could even overtake the technology
  2. How fast, how far, how much?
  3. When can I get WiMax?
  4. The LTE threat
  5. Looking ahead


How fast, how far, how much?

Just how high-speed is WiMax? The honest answer is 'it depends'.



Further, "the flat, open fields of Kansas will see different coverage on 3.65 GHz than my neighborhood nestled at the base of three mountain ranges in Alaska", he continued.



Clearwire reports that its WiMax users are seeing average speeds of 4Mbps to 6Mbps, with bursts exceeding 15Mbps - about the same throughput that DSL services provide. To get that level of performance, you can expect to pay about as much as you currently do for DSL.


WiMax, Wi-Fi or both?

To access WiMax, you're going to have a wide variety of hardware choices, includinglaptops, netbooks, handhelds and mobile internet devices with built-in WiMax radios, according to Julie Coppernoll, director of marketing for WiMax at Intel.

"Numerous embedded WiMax laptops based on Intel Centrino 2 processor technology are now available," she said. In addition, USB modems will bring WiMax into your home or office, replacing your wired Internet connection.

But WiMax won't necessarily replace Wi-Fi. WiMax/Wi-Fi translators, such as Cradlepoint's Clear Spot router, can create a local Wi-Fi network from a WiMax signal.


Using it, people can avoid local Wi-Fi hot spot fees - and, as WiMax rollouts continue, they might be able to pick up WiMax service in areas where they can't find a Wi-Fi hot spot.

Other companies are also bridging the gap between WiMax's 802.16 and Wi-Fi's 802.11 protocols. Cisco Systems, for instance, plans to introduce devices with that capability under its Linksys brand within the next six months.



"As we're seeing today on the cellular side, WiMax providers will also look to Wi-Fi as an alternative connection to migrate users from scarce licensed spectrum - and users will gravitate to Wi-Fi for its affordability."

Broadband speed test

NEXT PAGE: When can I get WiMax

  2. How fast, how far, how much?
  3. When can I get WiMax?
  4. The LTE threat
  5. Looking ahead


When can I get WiMax?

Clearwire's WiMax service, known as Clear, is available in four large US cities and 10 smaller cities in Texas, Idaho and Washington. Rollouts in Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas/Fort Worth, Seattle, Honolulu and Charlotte are also scheduled for this year.

The company plans to offer service to as many as 120 million customers in 80 US markets, including New York, Boston, Washington, DC, Houston and San Francisco, by the end of 2010. However it's not yet hit the UK.

While Clearwire gets the lion's share of WiMax publicity in the US, it's far from the only company in the WiMax broadcasting business. AT&T, 'or example, has rolled out WiMax service in Alaska for residents of Anchorage and Juneau.

And Intel is working with Clearwire to launch the 'WiMax Innovation Network' in California's Silicon Valley to serve as a test environment for mobile application developers at companies like Google.


But mass WiMax deployments are still not moving quickly.



Jones said he expects to see more visible progress next year.




Broadband speed test

NEXT PAGE: The LTE threat

  2. How fast, how far, how much?
  3. When can I get WiMax?
  4. The LTE threat
  5. Looking ahead


The LTE threat





"The cellular carriers are on an evolutionary path to LTE, [but] it is difficult to figure out when LTE will be a significant competitor and have material impact on WiMax adoption," Peter Stanforth, chief technology officer and co-founder of Spectrum Bridge, an online market for wireless spectrum, said.



In an ABI research report from the second quarter of 2009, senior analyst Nadine Manjaro said:"Vendors will only begin shipping base station equipment in significant quantities in 2010, followed by full commercial launches in 2011."

While "many operators have been talking about re-use of existing equipment", ABI expects that "most ... base stations will have completely new baseband and RF components, because operators will generally try to keep the new LTE networks separate from their legacy networks," she wrote.

ABI predicts that there will be at best 34 million LTE users at the end of 2011, with perhaps twice as many WiMax users. And Adlane Fellah, an analyst at telecommunications research firm Maravedis, even speculated that carriers who intend to deploy LTE in a few years might turn to WiMax in the short term to take pressure off their 3G networks.



"WiMax, on the other hand, has in most cases been the technology of choice for new market entrants - Tier 2 and Tier 3 operators," Schoolar continued.


Unless WiMax deployment rates speed up, LTE will become the dominant 4G data network by 2015, predicts ABI Research principal analyst Phillip Solis.

Farpoint Group's Mathias concurs. "LTE will have the footprint, services, and carrier and vendor support to make almost everyone happy, especially when coupled with Wi-Fi, which it will often be," he said.

"WiMax isn't going away, but its opportunities for growth will be severely limited, and I don't think that there's much that can be done about that either from a business or a technology perspective."

Broadband speed test

NEXT PAGE: Looking ahead

  2. How fast, how far, how much?
  3. When can I get WiMax?
  4. The LTE threat
  5. Looking ahead


Looking ahead

Stanforth sees a role for WiMax as a public service. "Muni Wi-Fi flopped primarily because of both the lousy coverage of Wi-Fi and the cost to even get that - it took 60-plus Wi-Fi [access points] per square mile to implement using a typical mesh architecture, whereas a single WiMax AP will probably cover well over a square mile. The economics of 'Muni WiMax' might make sense," he said.

Lori Sylvia, executive vice president of marketing at Red Bend Software, which makes WiMax device-management software, thinks WiMax service delivery and infrastructure costs will need to decrease in order for WiMax to compete with DSL and cable.

When all providers, no matter what technology they use, can provide multiple Mbps. speeds, "then the buying criteria becomes like any other internet service: coverage and cost," Sylvia said.

Brough Turner, an independent wireless analyst and blogger, isn't optimistic. Turner said: "The problem is WiMax products can never achieve the volumes associated with the GSM family of technologies (GSM, UMTS, HSPA, LTE). As a result, WiMax will always cost more to deploy, and WiMax handsets will be more expensive than comparable GSM family handsets".

"It doesn't matter if WiMax is 'better' than LTE or not, or that WiMax is ahead today. The installed base of GSM family technologies generates very high volumes for GSM family products. As those products migrate to LTE, LTE product volumes will drive costs well below WiMax costs."

It's not necessarily an either/or proposition, however.

"In my opinion, LTE and WiMax will co-exist, as they are actually targeting different markets," said Schoolar of Current Analysis.

"LTE for the most part is an extension of the current mobile ecosystem. It will primarily be used to do what we are doing today with 3G, but better. WiMax's primary market, however, will be more about fixed and portable services. As much as I hate to say it, WiMax really will be Wi-Fi on steroids.

While WiMax's head start over LTE has diminished, I don't think it matters as much as people think, as the two technologies are running a separate race."

Broadband speed test

See also: High-speed WiMax 'not ready yet'

  2. How fast, how far, how much?
  3. When can I get WiMax
  4. The LTE threat
  5. Looking ahead