NBN to save WiMax in Australia?
- 30 April, 2009 16:48
- Comments 7
Plans to connect the nation with the Government-owned National Broadband Network (NBN) is a big opportunity for WiMax technology, according to Intel.
Intel vice-president of sales and marketing and general manager of Intel Asia-Pacific, Navin Shenoy, said the vendor believed WiMax was the optimal format for reaching regional areas within Australia, and claimed fibre channel, or other technologies, would be prohibitively expensive.
"We've started having some discussions with the Government around this," Shenoy said. "From what I understand of the stimulus package, the intent was to cover both cities as well as rural areas, and I think as they go through the details of what it will take in terms of technology to cover those rural areas, they will need a highly efficient and low-cost solution.
"We feel the WiMax is the best option in that scenario."
Last year, Frost & Sullivan analyst, Marc Einstein, predicted the Asia-Pacific region will have as many as 43 million WiMax subscribers by the end of 2013 and generate revenues of $US11 billion at a compound annual growth rate of 45 per cent from 2007-2013. However, Australia was expected to make up just two per cent of that subscriber base.
Intel disagreed with this prediction, Shenoy said, who pointed to other developed nations with a commitment to WiMax as examples.
“The US, Japan and Korea are all developed nations, and all have made a commitment to WiMax and are developing WiMax pretty aggressively," he said. "Why is that? Because true personal global broadband is impossible with any other technology at the moment. You cannot get upload and download at reasonable 2Mbps speeds with any other technology that exists today. Consumers want to have it.
"The developed nations will adopt it for mobile broadband reasons, and the developing countries will adopt it just for broadband, not necessarily mobile broadband. In both cases, WiMax has a good proposition, and we're seeing good traction. These things do take time to get properly ingrained."
Shenoy also pointed to the adoption of Wi-Fi technology as a case for confidence in WiMax.
"I remember lots of sceptics about Wi-Fi in 2002. Three years later, I can't think of a single notebook that doesn't have Wi-Fi technology built-in, and most hotels, coffee shops and airports, for example, offer the technology," he said.
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Comments
Anonymous
Opportunity in cities as well
I hold out hope for wireless coverage in cities as well.
I really hope that cities could be covered by wireless as well to allow customers to roam onto the wireless network while away from home or the office.
The data quota and authentication linked back to their home FTTP account, it could be offered as an additional service for a fee and perhaps an additional fee for increased speeds.
Greg Alexander
No... not wimax in the cities
Hi Anonymous,
We don't want the NBN to make wireless in the cities. We've got at least 5 different wireless options at the moment... let competition work wherever it can work.
In fact... Sydney has multiple FTTB providers in the CBD.... so why not leave that to competition too?
Alex Alexander
Deploy WiMAX already
Inexpensive, highly efficient, with long-range base stations exist like the MacroMAXe/BroadOne WX300. No reason everyone can't have super-fast Internet and voice ANYWHERE they are.
Anonymous
WiMax is only capable of delivering a maximum rate of 3Mbits per second. This is far short of the 100 Mbit/s speeds the government has proposed for most of the population, and even much less than the 12 Mbit/s speeds they have promised as a minimum service level. If the NBN is truly about future proofing the broadband network we should stick to the most future proof technology, which with probable improvements in Wavelength Division multiplexing is likely to remain fibre optic into the distant future.
PENTAQ
WiMAX Coverage and Speed
The fastest WiFi connection can transmit up to 54 megabits per second under optimal conditions. WiMAX should be able to handle up to 70 megabits per second. Even once that 70 megabits is split up between several dozen businesses or a few hundred home users, it will provide at least the equivalent of cable-modem transfer rates to each user.
The biggest difference isn't speed; it's distance. WiMAX outdistances WiFi by miles. WiFi's range is about 100 feet (30 m). WiMAX will blanket a radius of 30 miles (50 km) with wireless access. The increased range is due to the frequencies used and the power of the transmitter. Of course, at that distance, terrain, weather and large buildings will act to reduce the maximum range in some circumstances, but the potential is there to cover huge tracts of land.
PENTAQ
WiMAX Could Boost Government Security
In an emergency, communication is crucial for government officials as they try to determine the cause of the problem, find out who may be injured and coordinate rescue efforts or cleanup operations. A gas-line explosion or terrorist attack could sever the cables that connect leaders and officials with their vital information networks.
WiMAX could be used to set up a back-up (or even primary) communications system that would be difficult to destroy with a single, pinpoint attack. A cluster of WiMAX transmitters would be set up in range of a key command center but as far from each other as possible. Each transmitter would be in a bunker hardened against bombs and other attacks. No single attack could destroy all of the transmitters, so the officials in the command center would remain in communication at all times.
Anonymous
nice work
"WiMax is only capable of delivering a maximum rate of 3Mbits per second"
who told u that? I can get true 4Mb/s up/down from a single 5 Mhz channel TDD of 1:1..
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