WiMAX Mobile (802.16E): Momentum is building

The recent adoption of WiMAX Mobile (802.16e) by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as a global standard for mobile devices is a major milestone in the roll-out of this next-generation communication technology.

As the first new interface to be added since the standards were originally defined almost ten years ago, the decision increases WiMAX’s chances of becoming the preferred system for the next generation of high-speed wireless Internet access, and it is anticipated that it will spur development of the wireless technology, attract new investors and drive down hardware costs.

While WiMAX Mobile’s initial real-world performance will not live up to the some of its hype (certain laws of physics are immutable, and so 70Mbps over a distance of 70 km (approx. 40 miles) and speeds of 70MPH, is probably not going to be with us in the foreseeable future), first-generation products should allow symmetrical speeds of 10 Mbps at 10 km for line-of-sight scenarios, which is a significant advance from the 2G (GSM, iDEN) and 2.5G (GPRS, EDGE, 1x-RTT) networks that are deployed in the US today, and the planned 3G upgrades (UMTS, HSDPA).

Looking to repeat their ‘build it and they will come’ strategy that worked so well for Wi-Fi®, Intel has already invested over $2.5 billion in building WiMAX networks around the world and other WiMAX-related investments. Next year, Intel will introduce integrated, combination Wi-Fi/WiMAX chipsets that will be suitable for laptops, cell phones and mobile Internet devices, and their marketing machine will be stepping up their game.

It is clear that 'any time, any place, any device' broadband connectivity took a step closer to becoming a reality with the adoption of the WiMAX Mobile as a global standard by the ITU. NextPhase’s strategy continues to be building a significant nationwide footprint, deploying current-state pre-WiMAX customer premise equipment (CPE) and preparing to deploy WiMAX Mobile equipment as price/performance and market demand dictates.