| Definitions The terms "fixed WiMAX", "mobile WiMAX", "802.16d" and "802.16e" are frequently used incorrectly. Correct definitions are the following:
Uses The bandwidth and range of WiMAX make it suitable for the following potential applications:
Broadband access Companies are closely examining WiMAX for last mile connectivity. The resulting competition may bring lower pricing for both home and business customers or bring broadband access to places where it has been economically unavailable. WiMAX access was used to assist with communications in Aceh, Indonesia, after the tsunami in December 2004. All communication infrastructure in the area, other than amateur radio, was destroyed, making the survivors unable to communicate with people outside the disaster area and vice versa. WiMAX provided broadband access that helped regenerate communication to and from Aceh. In addition, WiMAX was donated by Intel Corporation to assist the FCC and FEMA in their communications efforts in the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. In practice, volunteers used mainly self-healing mesh, VoIP, and a satellite uplink combined with Wi-Fi on the local link. Subscriber units (Client Units) WiMAX subscriber units are available in both indoor and outdoor versions from several manufacturers. Self-install indoor units are convenient, but radio losses mean that the subscriber must be significantly closer to the WiMAX base station than with professionally-installed external units. As such, indoor-installed units require a much higher infrastructure investment as well as operational cost (site lease, backhaul, maintenance) due to the high number of base stations required to cover a given area. Indoor units are comparable in size to a cable modem or DSL modem. Outdoor units are roughly the size of a laptop PC, and their installation is comparable to the installation of a residential satellite dish. With the potential of mobile WiMAX, there is an increasing focus on portable units. This includes handsets (similar to cellular smartphones), PC peripherals (PC Cards or USB dongles), and embedded devices in laptops, which are now available for Wi-Fi services. In addition, there is much emphasis from operators on consumer electronics devices such as Gaming consoles, MP3 players and similar devices. It is notable that WiMAX is more similar to Wi-Fi than to 3G cellular technologies. Current certified devices can be found at the WiMAX Forum web site. This is not a complete list of devices available as certified modules are embedded into laptops, MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices), and private labeled devices. Mobile handset applications Sprint Nextel announced in mid-2006 that it would invest about US$ 5 billion in a WiMAX technology buildout over the next few years. Since that time Sprint has been dealt setbacks that have resulted in steep quarterly losses. On May 7, 2008, Sprint, Imagine, Google, Intel, Comcast, and Time Warner announced a pooling of an average of 120 MHz of spectrum and formation of a new company which will take the name Clearwire. The new company hopes to benefit from combined services offerings and network resources as a springboard past its competitors. The cable companies will provide media services to other partners while gaining access to the wireless network as a Mobile virtual network operator. Google will contribute Android handset device development and applications and will receive revenue share for advertising and other services they provide. Clearwire Sprint and current Clearwire gain a majority stock ownership in the new venture and ability to access between the new Clearwire and Sprint 3G networks. Some details remain unclear including how soon and in what form announced multi-mode WiMAX and 3G EV-DO devices will be available. This raises questions that arise for availability of competitive chips that require licensing of Qualcomm's IPR. Some analysts have questioned how the deal will work out: Although fixed-mobile convergence has been a recognized factor in the industry, prior attempts to form partnerships among wireless and cable companies have generally failed to lead to significant benefits to the participants. Other analysts point out that as wireless progresses to higher bandwidth, it inevitably competes more directly with cable and DSL, thrusting competitors into bed together. Also, as wireless broadband networks grow denser and usage habits shift, the need for increased backhaul and media service will accelerate, therefore the opportunity to leverage cable assets is expected to increase. Backhaul/access network applications WiMAX is a possible replacement candidate for cellular phone technologies such as GSM and CDMA, or can be used as an overlay to increase capacity. It has also been considered as a wireless backhaul technology for 2G, 3G, and 4G networks in both developed and poor nations. In North America, backhaul for urban cellular operations is typically provided via one or more copper wire line T1 connections, whereas remote cellular operations are sometimes backhauled via satellite. In most other regions, urban and rural backhaul is usually provided by microwave links. (The exception to this is where the network is operated by an incumbent with ready access to the copper network, in which case T1 lines may be used). WiMAX is a broadband platform and as such has much more substantial backhaul bandwidth requirements than legacy cellular applications. Therefore traditional copper wire line backhaul solutions are not appropriate. Consequently the use of wireless microwave backhaul is on the rise in North America and existing microwave backhaul links in all regions are being upgraded. Capacities of between 34 Mbit/s and 1 Gbit/s are routinely being deployed with latencies in the order of 1ms. In many cases, operators are aggregating sites using wireless technology and then presenting traffic on to fiber networks where convenient. Deploying WiMAX in rural areas with limited or no internet backbone will be challenging as additional methods and hardware will be required to procure sufficient bandwidth from the nearest sources - the difficulty being in proportion to the distance between the end-user and the nearest sufficient internet backbone. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wimax |
Finnish WiMAX operators
Mobile-WiMAX operators
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