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<P>Hi Guys, looks like we'll have to scrap MW. Its now all redundant....
Again.</P>
<P>This article was in SMH Monday.</P>
<P><FONT size=3>WiMax could leave Wi-Fi in the dust</FONT></P>
<P>There's a group of engineers quietly working away on a wireless technology
that could make the Wi-Fi craze seem tame. It's called WiMax, and analysts say
we'll be hearing a lot more about it this year. </P>
<P>As the name suggests, WiMax is a bigger, more powerful version of its distant
cousin Wi-Fi. </P>
<P>Wi-Fi, which burst on the scene in 2002 and is now available in places as
common as McDonald's restaurants, delivers high-speed internet service within a
90-metre radius. </P>
<P>WiMax, on the other hand, can do the same over a wide sweep of land, up to a
maximum of 56 kilometres although smaller areas are more typical. </P>
<P>Pyramid Research analyst John Yunker said "2004 will be an interesting year
for WiMax. Some major carriers are taking a hard look at it and some plan to
announce tests." </P>
<P>So what exactly is WiMax? </P>
<P>One thing it's not is new. </P>
<P>WiMax, which stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, uses
a technology that's been around for several years called fixed wireless. </P>
<P>In a typical system, a signal is broadcast from a tall tower and picked up by
a smaller receiver at a customer location. The signal delivers a broadband
internet connection over a wide swath of land. </P>
<P></P>
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<P></P>
<P>The particular type of fixed wireless used by WiMax can send signals through
walls and around barriers so the tower and receivers do not need an unobstructed
path. </P>
<P>Fixed wireless systems are up and running all over the US and are used mostly
by businesses. But the equipment made by one company won't necessarily work with
that made by another. </P>
<P>Part of the reason for the rapid rise in Wi-Fi popularity is efforts of a
core group of Wi-Fi businesses that agreed on a set of standards that were
developed in conjunction with IEEE, a non-profit technical association that
helps industries establish recognised standards. </P>
<P>Agreement on standards for Wi-Fi led to dramatic price drops in the equipment
and, perhaps most important, the chips installed in computers and handheld
devices to connect to Wi-Fi networks. The price of Wi-Fi network access cards,
for example, fell from about $US70 ($A93) to $US20 ($A27) in a single year and
is now about $US10 ($A13.50). </P>
<P>Another group of companies, which include chip-making giant Intel, are now
pushing for a standard for WiMax. </P>
<P>A widely adopted standard would mean all makers of WiMax equipment would
build to similar specifications, so gear made by one company would work
seamlessly with gear from another. </P>
<P>Later this year, the group, called the WiMax Forum, is hoping to hold "plug
fests", where equipment makers will test their gear with one another to make
sure it works. </P>
<P>Margaret LaBrecque, president of the WiMax Forum, said that without
standards, the companies making WiMax gear won't ever see great success, and the
technology won't grow. </P>
<P>"There are very few economies of scale for these equipment vendors, which
makes it really hard to drive profits," said LaBrecque, whose day job is
marketing manager for Intel's broadband wireless division. </P>
<P>Some analysts say WiMax will prove attractive in places underserved by cable
modems and DSL, the high-speed internet service provided over a phone line. One
tower could deliver a WiMax signal to hundreds of users. </P>
<P>Yunker believes WiMax will be used in rural areas, which cable companies and
the local phone companies have deemed too expensive to wire. </P>
<P>And the technology may gain a strong foothold in developing nations where the
cost of building a large cable network to deliver internet access would be
prohibitive. </P>
<P>But others believe urban areas are potential WiMax markets too. They point to
TowerStream, a company that sells fixed wireless service in New York, the Boston
area and Rhode Island. </P>
<P>The company markets to businesses and provides broadband service at a
fraction of the cost of a T1 high-speed wire-based service provided by companies
like local phone giant Verizon. </P>
<P>Companies like TowerStream could possibly expand to serve residential markets
too, said Ed Rerisi, research director at Allied Business World, a technology
market research firm in New York. </P>
<P>There are companies - including Flarion, a wireless start-up born in Lucent
Technologies' Bell Labs - that hope a different technology they developed, which
provides a service similar to WiMax but operates differently, will take over as
the standard. </P>
<P>"There are a lot of vendors who don't want WiMax to succeed," said Yunker.
</P>
<P>Some analysts also believe WiMax poses a threat to the large mobile phone
companies, most of which have already invested billions in other technologies to
deliver voice and data over the airwaves. In January, Verizon Wireless announced
a nationwide rollout of something called EV-DO, a next-generation wireless
network that delivers broadband service based on a technology called CDMA. </P>
<P>But others say the wireless companies may decide to deploy the lower-cost,
higher-speed WiMax in addition to their networks. </P>
<P>"We'd like them to see WiMax as an opportunity," said LaBrecque. </P>
<P>And some of them might. </P>
<P>The big mobile phone carriers - and the wireless industry in general - at
first ignored Wi-Fi, which gained popularity on a grass-roots level. The
technology was finally embraced by the larger companies when they recognised how
efficient Wi-Fi networks are at short range and how many were being installed.
</P>
<P>In the end, said LaBrecque, "the real goal for WiMax is to provide consumers
and businesses with more options for broadband". </P>
<P> </P>
<P>Cya</P>
<P>Rabbit.</P>
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