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WiMax brings promise of ’Net revolution

New wireless platform holds promise of high-speed Internet delivered to handheld devices

Jeff Smith, Rocky Mountain News

Published October 23, 2006 at midnight

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Wi-Fi "hot spots" continue to proliferate. Carriers such as Sprint and Verizon Wireless have launched Internet services on cell phones and laptops for people on the go.

But Internet speeds for the mobile user are still slow compared with what is available at home through a cable modem or DSL connection. The wireless experience often translates into choppy video, waiting a long time to receive large data files and the like.

That may change as early as 2008, thanks to a technology platform called WiMax, often referred to as Wi-Fi on steroids. WiMax offers the possibility of an alternative high-speed Internet service - anywhere, anytime, on almost any device.

WiMax actually is a distinctly different technology platform from Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11), with its own set of standards known as IEEE 802.16 that have developed over 45 working sessions involving hundreds of engineers around the world since 1999.

WiMax delivers speed, range

A Colorado engineer - Roger Marks, formerly with the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder - has chaired the 802.16 working group since its inception, and many of the meetings have taken place along the Front Range.

WiMax delivers higher speeds than Wi-Fi over a much longer distance. The technology doesn't require a line of sight, and it is more efficient in transporting bandwidth-intensive applications, particularly time-sensitive services such as real-time video.

WiMax also can be used as a complementary system to Wi-Fi. One could use Wi-Fi in a coffee shop or home with WiMax infrastructure quickly connecting the Internet traffic to the outside world.

The technology could turn out to be an affordable way to provide high-speed service to rural America or smaller cities.

For example, Craig McCaw's Clearwire company has deployed pre-WiMax networks in about 30 smaller cities, including Boise. Denver-based Qwest Communications recently did a WiMax trial in Mead, in Weld County, and BellSouth has done trials in the Southeast.

But the biggest jump-start came in August when Sprint Nextel announced it would spend billions of dollars to deploy its next-generation wireless network using WiMax technology.

Sprint planning 2007 WiMax rollout

Sprint is partnering with Intel, Motorola and electronics maker Samsung, with plans to roll out service in some markets by the end of next year. Sprint thinks it will be able to reach 100 million people by 2008.

Colorado spokeswoman Debra Havins said Sprint tested different platforms and decided WiMax offered the most cost- and bandwidth-efficient solution.

Sprint expects its WiMax network to deliver speeds of 2 to 3 megabits a second, 35 times faster than standard dial-up service. Havins said Denver consumers are likely to see services within the next two to three years.

Marks said development of a fullblown WiMax industry will take time.

"But if the Sprint network is built out as planned by the end of next year, I think it's going to have an impact on the product developers," he said. "I think you'll start seeing stuff coming to market relatively quickly."

Havins said WiMax will enable consumers to watch TV shows, play interactive games and hold video conferences - all on portable devices.

"The idea is that devices like digital cameras, laptops, cell phones, automobiles all would have these WiMax chip sets in them, so they can communicate information to each other," Havins said.

Let's say a parent is traveling and unable to attend a child's school play. The other parent could transmit the play in its entirety and nearly instantaneously from a digital camera to the other parent's laptop, cell phone or other portable device.

WiMax has competitors

Nortel Networks, another proponent, says WiMax is ideally positioned for the "time/place shift" in modern society. That shift is illustrated by such popular consumer electronic devices as the TiVo, iPod and Slingbox, which enable consumers to listen to music and watch video whenever and wherever they want.But whether WiMax evolves into a major industry ultimately will depend on how many vendors and carriers participate, experts say. That will determine whether prices are low enough to attract consumers and whether information can be sent across multiple networks.

Competing technologies exist, such as the wireless industry's CDMA/EV-DO platform.

One of Sprint's advantages is that its merger with Nextel gave the company the largest amount of 2.5 gigahertz spectrum in the U.S., with frequencies covering 85 percent of the households in the top 100 markets.

The Federal Communications Commission recently held an auction of additional spectrum that winning bidders may decide to use for WiMax.

But spectrum may be an issue for others, such as Qwest, which doesn't have its own wireless network. Companies can use unlicensed spectrum in sparsely populated rural areas.

WiMax can be used for the mobile market or as a "fixed wireless" technology going into homes and offices.

While the basic standards for mobile and fixed WiMax are completed, a separate group, the WiMax Forum, is testing and certifying products. Many products for a fixed WiMax system already have been certified, but certification of mobile products isn't expected until next year, Marks said.

U.S. trails in WiMax realm

Initially, there may be more activity in the fixed WiMax market, although eventually the mobile market - worth about $40 billion a year in the U.S. - may be the stronger player, "with more money to be made in that space," Marks said.

The U.S., which trails many countries in the adoption of high-speed Internet services, isn't considered the leader in WiMax.

"There has been participation in our group from all over the world," Marks said. "There's a lot of interest in developing countries that don't have infrastructure at all," he said, such as Pakistan and India.

Australia, Japan and South Korea also have been aggressive in adopting different flavors of WiMax. South Korea calls its platform "WiBro."

Marks recently became senior vice president of industry relations for California-based NextWave Broadband Inc. NextWave was a significant winner of spectrum in the latest FCC auction and is building a WiMax trial in Las Vegas.

Barry Pier, a telecom veteran and president of Evergreen-based WisperTel, a wireless Internet provider, considers his five-year-old company a pre-WiMax firm.

His company's network already covers 2,500 square miles in Jefferson County, down U.S. 285 past Bailey, and up Interstate 70 to Georgetown.

Pier said he's going to be doing WiMax trials early next year and thinks the network will be able to achieve speeds of up to 25 megabits a second.

He said it's too early to say whether WiMax will win out as the dominant wireless platform in the future. But "I firmly believe that fixed wireless and WiMax will command substantial market share in suburban and rural markets."

So why WiMax?

Imagine watching live TV on a cell phone or PDA as you walk around town. Surfing the Web while sitting at the ballpark. Accessing the Internet from the top of a mountain. And not worrying whether your hotel has wireless capabilities.

You can stay connected to the world - if you want to - wherever you go.

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