Wikipedia

WiMAX

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WiMAX is defined as Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access by the WiMAX Forum, formed in June 2001 to promote conformance and interoperability of the IEEE 802.16 standard, officially known as WirelessMAN. The Forum describes WiMAX as "a standards-based technology enabling the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL".

"WiMAX is not a technology, but rather a certification mark, or 'stamp of approval' given to equipment that meets certain conformity and interoperability tests for the IEEE 802.16 family of standards. A similar confusion surrounds the term Wi-Fi, which like WiMAX, is a certification mark for equipment based on a different set of IEEE standards from the 802.11 working group for wireless local area networks (WLAN). Neither WiMAX, nor Wi-Fi is a technology but their names have been adopted in popular usage to denote the technologies behind them. This is likely due to the difficulty of using terms like 'IEEE 802.16' in common speech and writing." - OECD [1]

Uses

The bandwidth and reach of WiMAX make it suitable for the following potential applications:

  • Connecting Wi-Fi hotspots with each other and to other parts of the Internet
  • Providing a wireless alternative to cable and DSL for last mile (last km) broadband access.
  • Providing high-speed mobile data and telecommunications services (4G)
  • Providing a diverse source of Internet connectivity as part of a business continuity plan. i.e. if a business has a fixed and a wireless internet connection they are unlikely to be affected by the same service outage.
  • Providing Nomadic connectivity

Broadband Access

Many companies are closely examining WiMAX for "last mile" connectivity at high data rates. This could result in lower pricing for both home and business customers as competition lowers prices.

In areas without pre-existing physical cable or telephone networks, WiMAX will, it appears, be a viable alternative for broadband access that has been economically unavailable. Prior to WiMax, many operators have been using proprietary fixed wireless technologies for broadband services.

WiMAX subscriber units are available in both indoor and outdoor versions from several manufacturers. Self install indoor units are convenient, but the subscriber must be significantly closer to the WiMAX base station than with professionally installed 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 allow for the subscriber to be much further away from the WiMAX base station, but usually require professional installation. Outdoor units are roughly the size of a textbook, and their installation is comparable to a residential satellite dish.

Limitations

A commonly held misconception is that WiMAX will deliver 70 Mbit/s, over 70 miles (112.6 kilometers). Each of these is true individually, given ideal circumstances, but they are not simultaneously true. In practice this means that in Line of sight environments you could deliver symmetrical speeds of 10Mbps at 10Km but in Urban Environments it is more likely that 30% of installtions may be Non Line of sight and therefore Users may only recieve 10Mbps over 2Km. WiMAX has some similarities to DSL in this respect, where one can either have high bandwidth or long reach, but not both simultaneously. The other feature to consider with WiMAX is that available bandwidth is shared between users in a given radio sector, so if there are many active users in a single sector, each will get reduced bandwidth. However, unlike SDSL where contention is very noticable at a 5:1 ratio if you are sharing your connection with a large media firm for example WiMax does not have this problem. Typically each cell has a 100Mbps backhaul so there is is no contention here. On the radio side in practice many users will have a range of 2,4,6,8 or 10Mbps services and the bandwidth can be shared. If the network becomes busy the business model is more like GSM or UMTS than DSL in that it is easy to predict the capacity requiremetns as you sign more customers and additional radio cards can be added on the same sector to increase the capacity.

Mobile applications

Some cellular companies are evaluating WiMAX as a means of increasing bandwidth for a variety of data-intensive applications; indeed, Sprint Nextel has announced in mid-2006 that it will be investing about US$ 3 billion in a WiMAX technology buildout over the next few years.

In line with these possible applications is the technology's ability to serve as a high bandwidth "backhaul" for Internet or cellular phone traffic from remote areas back to an internet backbone. Although the cost-effectiveness of WiMAX in a remote application will be higher, it is not limited to such applications, and may be an answer to reducing the cost of T1/E1 backhaul as well. Given the limited wired infrastructure in some developing countries, the costs to install a WiMAX station in conjunction with an existing cellular tower or even as a solitary hub are likely to be small in comparison to developing a wired solution. Areas of low population density and flat terrain are particularily suited to WiMAX and its range. For countries that have skipped wired infrastructure as a result of inhibitive costs and unsympathetic geography, WiMAX can enhance wireless infrastructure in an inexpensive, decentralized, deployment-friendly and effective manner.

Technical info

WiMAX is a term coined to describe standard, interoperable implementations of IEEE 802.16 wireless networks, in a rather similar way to Wi-Fi being interoperable implementations of the IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN standard. However, WiMAX is very different from Wi-Fi in the way it works.

MAC layer

In Wi-Fi the media access controller (MAC) uses contention access — all subscriber stations that wish to pass data through a wireless access point (AP) are competing for the AP's attention on a random interrupt basis. This can cause subscriber stations distant from the AP to be repeatedly interrupted by closer stations, greatly reducing their throughput. This makes services such as Voice over IP (VoIP) or IPTV, which depend on an essentially constant Quality of Service (QoS) depending on data rate and interruptibility, difficult to maintain for more than a few simultaneous users.

In contrast, the 802.16 MAC uses a scheduling algorithm for which the subscriber station need compete once (for initial entry into the network). After that it is allocated an access slot by the base station. The time slot can enlarge and contract, but remains assigned to the subscriber station which means that other subscribers cannot use it. The 802.16 scheduling algorithm is stable under overload and over-subscription (unlike 802.11). It can also be more bandwidth efficient. The scheduling algorithm also allows the base station to control QoS parameters by balancing the time-slot assignments among the application needs of the subscriber stations.

Physical layer

The original WiMAX standard (IEEE 802.16) specified WiMAX for the 10 to 66 GHz range. 802.16a, updated in 2004 to 802.16-2004 (also known as 802.16d), added specification for the 2 to 11 GHz range. 802.16d (also known as "fixed WiMAX") was updated to 802.16e in 2005 (known as "mobile WiMAX"). and uses scalable orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) as opposed to the OFDM version with 256 sub-carriers used in 802.16d. This brings potential benefits in terms of coverage, self installation, power consumption, frequency re-use and bandwidth efficiency. 802.16e also adds a capability for full mobility support. The WiMAX certification allows vendors with 802.16d products to sell their equipment as WiMAX certified, thus ensuring a level of interoperability with other certified products, as long as they fit the same profile.

Most interest will probably be in the 802.16d and .16e standards, since the lower frequencies suffer less from inherent signal attenuation and therefore give improved range and in-building penetration. Already today, a number of networks throughout the World are in commercial operation using certified WiMAX equipment compliant with the 802.16d standard.

Advantages over Wi-Fi

  • The WiMAX specification provides symmetrical bandwidth over many kilometers and range with stronger encryption (TDES or AES)and typically less interference. Wi-Fi is short range (approximately 10's of metres) has WEP or WPP encrption and sufferes from interfence as in metropolitan areas there are so many users.
  • Wi-Fi Hotspots are typically backhaulled over ADSL in most coffee shops therefore Wi-Fi access is typically highly contended and has poor upload speeds between the router the and the internet.
  • It provides connectivity between network endpoints without the need for direct line of sight in favourable circumstances. The non-line-of-sight propagation (NLOS) performance requires the .16d or .16e revisions, since the lower frequencies are needed. It relies upon multi-path signals, somewhat in the manner of 802.11n.

Spectrum Allocations issues

The 802.16 specification applies across a wide swath of the RF spectrum. However, specification is not the same as permission to use. There is no uniform global licensed spectrum for WiMAX. In the US, the biggest segment available is around 2.5 GHz, and is already assigned, primarily to Sprint Nextel and Clearwire. Elsewhere in the world, the most likely bands used will be around 3.5 GHz, 2.3/2.5 GHz, or 5 GHz, with 2.3/2.5 GHz probably being most important in Asia. In addition, several companies have announced plans to utilize the WiMAX standard in the 1.7/2.1 GHz spectrum band recently auctioned by the FCC, for deployment of "Advanced Wireless Services"(AWS).

There is some prospect in the U. S. that some of a 700 MHz band might be made available for WiMAX use, but it is currently assigned to analog TV and awaits the complete rollout of digital TV before it can become available, likely by 2009. In any case, there will be other uses suggested for that spectrum if and when it actually becomes open.

It seems likely that there will be several variants of 802.16, depending on local regulatory conditions and thus on which spectrum is used, even if everything but the underlying radio frequencies is the same. WiMAX equipment will not, therefore, be as portable as it might have been - perhaps even less so than WiFi, whose assigned channels in unlicensed spectrum vary little from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

The actual radio bandwidth of spectrum allocations is also likely to vary. Typical allocations are likely to provide channels of 5 MHz or 7 MHz. In principle the larger the bandwidth allocation of the spectrum, the higher the bandwidth that WiMAX can support for user traffic.

Standards

The current 802.16 standard is IEEE Std 802.16e-2005[1], approved in December 2005. It followed on from IEEE Std 802.16-2004[2], which replaced IEEE Standards 802.16-2001, 802.16c-2002, and 802.16a-2003.

IEEE Std 802.16-2004 (802.16d) addresses only fixed systems. 802.16e adds mobility components to the standard.

IEEE 802.16e

IEEE 802.16e-2005 (formerly named, but still best known as, 802.16e or Mobile WiMAX) provides an improvement on the modulation schemes stipulated in the original (fixed) WiMAX standard. It allows for fixed wireless and mobile Non Line of Sight (NLOS) applications primarily by enhancing the OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access).

SOFDMA (Scalable OFDMA) improves upon OFDM256 for NLOS applications by:

On the other hand, 802.16-2004 (fixed WiMAX) offers the benefit of available commercial products and implementations optimized for fixed access. Fixed WiMAX is a popular standard among alternative service providers and operators in developing areas due to its low cost of deployment and advanced performance in a fixed environment. Fixed WiMax is also seen as a potential standard for backhaul of wireless base stations such as cellular, WiFi of even mobile WiMAX.

SOFDMA and OFDMA256 are not compatible so most equipment will have to be replaced. However, some manufacturers are planning to provide a migration path for older equipment to SOFDMA compatibility which would ease the transition for those networks which have already made the OFDMA256 investment. This effects a relatively small number users and operators.

HIPERMAN

The equivalent of 802.16 in Europe is HIPERMAN. The WiMAX Forum is working to ensure that 802.16 and HIPERMAN inter-operate seamlessly.

WiBro

Korea's electronics and telecommunication industry spearheaded by Samsung Electronics and ETRI has developed its own standard, WiBro. In late 2004, Intel and LG Electronics have agreed on interoperability between WiBro and WiMAX.

WiBro has South Korean government support with the requirement for each carrier to spend over US$1 billion for deployments. The Koreans sought to develop WiBro as a regional and potentially international alternative to 3.5G or 4G cellular systems. But given the lack of momentum as a standard, WiBro has joined WiMAX and agreed to harmonize with the similar OFDMA 802.16e version of the standard. What makes WiBro roll-outs a good 'test case' for the overall WiMAX effort is that it is mobile, well thought out for delivery of wireless broadband services, and the fact that the deployment is taking place in a highly sophisticated, broadband-saturated market. WiBro will go up against 3G and very high bandwidth wire-line services rather than as gap-filler or rural under-served market deployments as is often exampled as the 'best fit' markets for WiMAX.

Associations

WiMAX Forum

WiMAX Forum logo
WiMAX Forum logo

The WiMAX Forum is "the exclusive organization dedicated to certifying the interoperability of BWA products, the WiMAX Forum defines and conducts conformance and interoperability testing to ensure that different vendor systems work seamlessly with one another." Those that pass conformance and interoperability testing achieve the "WiMAX Forum Certified" designation and display this mark on their products and marketing materials. Vendors claiming their equipment is "WiMAX-ready", "WiMAX-compliant", or "pre-WiMAX" are not WiMAX Forum Certified, according to the Forum. [2]

WiMAX Spectrum Owners Alliance - WiSOA

 
WiSOA logo

WiSOA is the first global organisation composed exclusively of owners of WiMAX spectrum. WiSOA is focussed on the regulation, commercialisation, and deployment of WiMAX spectrum in the 2.3–2.5 GHz and the 3.4–3.5 GHz ranges. WiSOA are dedicated to educating and informing its members, industry representatives and government regulators of the importance of WiMAX spectrum, its use, and the potential for WiMAX to revolutionise broadband.[3]


Competing technologies

 

WiMAX is a framework for wireless development based on a forward-looking core set of technologies. More recently 3GPP cellular's 4G, 802.22 Cognitive Radio RAN (Rural Area Network), and 802.20, the High Speed Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (MBWA) Working Group, have shifted toward use of similar constructs of multi-channel scalable OFDM, HARQ, FEC, MIMO-AAS and other complementary technologies as are part of WiMAX.

Within the marketplace, WiMAX's main competition comes from widely deployed wireless systems with overlapping functionality such as UMTS and CDMA2000, as well as a number of Internet oriented systems such as HIPERMAN and WiBro.

Cellular Phone Systems 3G and 4G

Both of the two major 3G systems, CDMA2000 and UMTS, compete with WiMAX. Both offer DSL-class Internet access in addition to phone service. UMTS has also been enhanced to compete directly with WiMAX in the form of UMTS-TDD, which can use WiMAX oriented spectrum and provides a more consistant, if lower bandwidth at peak, user experience than WiMAX. Moving forward, similar air interface technologies to those used by WiMAX are being considered for the 4G evolution of UMTS.

3G cellular phone systems usually benefit from already having entrenched infrastructure, being upgrades from earlier systems. Users can usually fall back to older systems when they move out of range of upgraded equipment, often relatively seamlessly.

In addition to obvious competition, in some areas of the world the wide availability of UMTS and a general desire for standardization has meant spectrum has not been allocated for WiMAX: in July 2005, the EU-wide frequency allocation for WiMAX was blocked by France and Finland, where manufacturers have invested heavily in UMTS technology. In September 2006, frequency bidding in Malaysia was stopped and any allocation of WiMAX has been suspended indefinitely. The ITU has, however, advised agnostic use of spectrum for IMT-2000 and is considering WiMAX as an alternative specified use for IMT-2000 and IMT-Advanced. Growing interest among operators is building for 'technology agnostic' allocation of spectrum in which operators are free to make best use of their large investments and insure against regulated obsolescence.

Internet Oriented Systems

Early WMAN standards, the European standard HIPERMAN and Korean standard WiBro have been harmonized as part of WiMAX and are no longer seen as competition but as complimentary. All networks now being deployed in Korea, the home of the Wibro standard, are now WiMAX.

As a short-range mobile internet solution, such as in cafes and at transportation hubs like airports, the popular WiFi 802.11g system is widely deployed, and provides enough coverage for some users to feel subscription to a WiMAX service is unnecessary.

Comparison

Comparison of mobile Internet access methods
Common
name		 Family Primary use Radio tech Downstream
(Mbit/s)		 Upstream
(Mbit/s)		 Notes
HSPA+ 3GPP Mobile Internet CDMA/TDMA/FDD
MIMO		 21
42
84
672		 5.8
11.5
22
168		 HSPA+ is widely deployed. Revision 11 of the 3GPP states that HSPA+ is expected to have a throughput capacity of 672 Mbit/s.
LTE 3GPP Mobile Internet OFDMA/TDMA/MIMO/SC-FDMA/for LTE-FDD/for LTE-TDD 100 Cat3
150 Cat4
300 Cat5
25065 Cat17
1658 Cat19
(in 20 MHz FDD) [4]
 50 Cat3/4
75 Cat5
2119 Cat17
13563 Cat19
(in 20 MHz FDD)[4]		 LTE-Advanced Pro offers rates in excess of 3 Gbit/s to mobile users.
WiMax rel 1 802.16 WirelessMAN MIMO-SOFDMA 37 (10 MHz TDD) 17 (10 MHz TDD) With 2x2 MIMO.[5]
WiMax rel 1.5 802.16-2009 WirelessMAN MIMO-SOFDMA 83 (20 MHz TDD)
141 (2x20 MHz FDD)		 46 (20 MHz TDD)
138 (2x20 MHz FDD)		 With 2x2 MIMO.Enhanced with 20 MHz channels in 802.16-2009[5]
WiMAX rel 2.0 802.16m WirelessMAN MIMO-SOFDMA 2x2 MIMO
110 (20 MHz TDD)
183 (2x20 MHz FDD)
4x4 MIMO
219 (20 MHz TDD)
365 (2x20 MHz FDD)		 2x2 MIMO
70 (20 MHz TDD)
188 (2x20 MHz FDD)
4x4 MIMO
140 (20 MHz TDD)
376 (2x20 MHz FDD)		 Also, low mobility users can aggregate multiple channels to get a download throughput of up to 1 Gbit/s[5]
Flash-OFDM Flash-OFDM Mobile Internet
mobility up to 200 mph (350 km/h)		 Flash-OFDM 5.3
10.6
15.9		 1.8
3.6
5.4		 Mobile range 30 km (18 miles)
Extended range 55 km (34 miles)
HIPERMAN HIPERMAN Mobile Internet OFDM 56.9
Wi-Fi 802.11
(11ax)		 Wireless LAN OFDM/OFDMA/CSMA/MIMO/MU-MIMO/Half duplex 9600 Wi-Fi 6

Antenna, RF front end enhancements and minor protocol timer tweaks have helped deploy long range P2P networks compromising on radial coverage, throughput and/or spectra efficiency (310 km & 382 km)

iBurst 802.20 Mobile Internet HC-SDMA/TDD/MIMO 95 36 Cell Radius: 3–12 km
Speed: 250 km/h
Spectral Efficiency: 13 bits/s/Hz/cell
Spectrum Reuse Factor: "1"
EDGE Evolution GSM Mobile Internet TDMA/FDD 1.6 0.5 3GPP Release 7
UMTS W-CDMA
HSPA (HSDPA+HSUPA) 		3GPP Mobile Internet CDMA/FDD

CDMA/FDD/MIMO		 0.384
14.4		 0.384
5.76		 HSDPA is widely deployed. Typical downlink rates today 2 Mbit/s, ~200 kbit/s uplink; HSPA+ downlink up to 56 Mbit/s.
UMTS-TDD 3GPP Mobile Internet CDMA/TDD 16 Reported speeds according to IPWireless using 16QAM modulation similar to HSDPA+HSUPA
EV-DO Rel. 0
EV-DO Rev.A
EV-DO Rev.B 		3GPP2 Mobile Internet CDMA/FDD 2.45
3.1
4.9xN		 0.15
1.8
1.8xN		 Rev B note: N is the number of 1.25 MHz carriers used. EV-DO is not designed for voice, and requires a fallback to 1xRTT when a voice call is placed or received.

Notes: All speeds are theoretical maximums and will vary by a number of factors, including the use of external antennas, distance from the tower and the ground speed (e.g. communications on a train may be poorer than when standing still). Usually the bandwidth is shared between several terminals. The performance of each technology is determined by a number of constraints, including the spectral efficiency of the technology, the cell sizes used, and the amount of spectrum available.

For more comparison tables, see bit rate progress trends, comparison of mobile phone standards, spectral efficiency comparison table and OFDM system comparison table.


Future developments and IEEE 802.20

MBWA is a technology under development by IEEE 802.20. It is a future technology for true wireless broadband or 4G. However The IEEE recently (June 2006) said it would pause the 802.20 working group that has the backing of Qualcomm, the US cellular communications giant that acquired 802.20 developer Flarion Technologies in January. This followed questions of whether panel participants had disclosed their affiliations in a proper manner.http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/mbwa/email/pdf00015.pdf

Deployment

The WiMAX Forum now lists over 170 WiMAX trials and deployments. The following are current and planned deployments, the bands in which they operate and the standards they use.

Australia:

  • Unwired holds licences in the 3.5GHz and 2.3GHz bands, and has plans to build a Mobile WiMax network on the 2.3Ghz band once WiMax Forum certified hardware is available. This will be a replacement to its proprietary fixed wireless system which currently exists on the 3.5Ghz band.
  • Austar holds licences in the 3.5GHz and 2.3GHz bands.

Austria:

Brazil:

  • Brazilian Telecommunications Agency to sell licences for WiMAX. See news (in portuguese). A few Brazilian companies already have rights to important parts of the WiMax spectrum, both at 2.5GHZ (MMDS band) and 3.5GHz.

Canada:

Chile:

China:

  • Spectrum is the impediment to deployments in China. However some progres has been made but deployments are being made under the radar of government supervision of spectrum regulation and sponsorship of TD-SCDMA
  • [3]

Congo:

  • Elix has deployed a citywide WiMAX network in the city of Kinshassa, using licensed spectrum at 3.5 GHz.

Croatia:

Colombia:

  • In January 20, 2006, Colombian company Telecom launched WiMAX i Bucaramanga, thus becoming the first city in Colombia, and the second in Latin America to have it. Orbitel, ETB and Telecom hold 3.5GHz licences for the entire country. Nowadays other cities with WiMax are Cali, Cúcuta, Barranquilla and Cartagena.

Denmark:

  • Despite of government reluctance to allow private companies to use the WiMAX frequency ranges, a few companies are using the WiMAX technologies with different frequencies. For private customers, the largest cities are covered by ClearWire, while Butler Networks delivers WiMAX access to bussiness customers through other telecommunication providers.

Estonia:

  • A total of 4 licenses in the 3.5-3.6GHz range have been issued to 5 companies. Three of them (Norby Telecom, Baltic Broadband and Tele2) have national-wide licenses and two companies (Levira and Elion) share the same frequency, but Elion can use it only in Tallinn and Harjumaa region and Levira in the whole country except of Tallinn and Harjumaa.
  • Norby Telecom was the first WiMAX operator in Estonia, started in september, 2005. Upon autumn 2006 Norby covers about 40% of country, mostly in rural regions, but has partial coverage in Tallinn and its suburbs. Norby utilizes fixed wireless equipment provided by Alvarion and offers speeds up to 2Mbps with external antenna.
  • Baltic broadband - develops BaltMAX brand for its WiMAX network, started it in november, 2005. Network covers center of Tallinn with some neighbour districts and residential suburb. BaltMAX offers fixed and nomadic internet access on Navini Networks equipment, which includes desktop modems without external antennas and PCMCIA cards. The highest speed BaltMAX can suggest is 512Kbps.

Finland:

  • There are some 15 WiMax operators in Finland spread throughout the country. The coverage is mainly concentrated on the rural areas and the Lappland, but SuomiCom has partial coverage also in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area.

France:

  • Iliad , owner of the Free (French ISP) , holds the only national license since 2005. 49 regional licenses were registered in july 2006.

Georgia:

  • QTEL Georgia is currently deploying an unlicensed 5.8 Ghz WiMax system in T'bilisi. Nationwide deployment is planned for Q1 & Q2 of 2007.

India:

  • India is viewed as having huge potential for WiMAX deployments if and when price for CPE/SUs moves lower than $100 US per unit. A $50 US CPE is a goal expressed by some industry participants that will stimulate widespread deployments.
  • Baramati goes WiMax

Ireland:

  • Irish Broadband Irish Broadband holds 3.5 GHz licenses in
  • Clearwire Broadband an American Company that also holds regional 3.5Ghz licences in many for the big cities in Ireland, they utilize Non-LOS technology to provide last mile access. Pre 802.16e equipment.
  • Lastmile Broadband also hold regional 3.5GHz licences and plan to deploy a WiMAX network in the fourth quarter of 2006. [4]
  • Eircom, The largest Telecom in Ireland hold the only nationwide 3.5Ghz licence, although not commercial available yet they plan for 2007 to have rolled out WiMAX.

Kuwait:

  • Arab Telecom is deploying a nationwide WiMAX network using 3.5 GHz spectrum.

Lebanon:

  • Cedarcom has deployed WiMAX networks throughout Lebanon in various frequency bands. Other operators are currently deploying similar networks. Despite the heavy damages inflicted by the Israeli attacks in July 2006, those networks provide essential communication services for banks and local enterprises and organizations.

New Zealand:

  • nzwireless is deploying WiMAX in the 3.5GHz spectrum for fixed installation, currently covering the Wellington CBD
  • CallPlus are deploying a nationwide 3.5GHz WiMAX network under the brand Blue Reach]
  • Natcom is deploying a nationwide 2.5GHz WiMAX


Nigeria:

  • XS Broadband has WiMAX licenses for 24 of the 36 Nigerian states, including the major cities. Networks have been deployed in most major cities to serve banks, enterprises and other applications.

Pakistan:

Paraguay:

  • Tigo Banda Ancha is currently using a WiMAX network, with a minimum plan of 41US$ per 64kbps 24x7. They use Alvarion.

Russia:

  • Synterra WiMAX uses Nextnet Wireless' (acquired by Motorola on Aug 29, 2006) equipment for its WiMAX network in Moscow region. Synterra holds 2.5-2.7GHz license valid until 2015. Unlimited Internet access plans start from $85 US per month.

Slovakia:

South Africa:

  • Telecoms Regululator Icasa has only issued four licences for commercial WiMax services: to wireless broadband solutions provider iBurst, state-owned signal distributor Sentech, second network operator Neotel, and Telkom, all on the 3.5MHz band.

UK:

  • UK Broadband a subsidiary of PCCW, owns 3.5 GHz licenses.
  • Urban WiMAX Plc Urban WiMAX, A London based operator using the 4.9 and 5.8GHz bands selling up to 10Mbps symmetrical access to businesses and next day delivery. They have funding and aggressive plans to roll out across the UK.

Ukraine:

  • Ukrainian High Technologies Ltd (the trade mark AlterNet™) holds the license for 3.4-3.7GHz range and currently operates WiMAX networks in Kiev and Kharkiv based on Intel® PRO/Wireless 5116 client terminals. AlterNet plans to cover all Ukraine's regional centers (26 cities) by 2007.

USA:

  • Valtech Communications deployed network in Northwest Ohio at beginning of 2006. Currently holds licenses for the Midwest and Florida.
  • Clearwire holds 2.5GHz licences in several regions.
  • Sprint Nextel holds licences in the 2.5GHz band covering most of the US. Sprint plans to build a "Nationwide advanced wireless broadband network expected to cover 100 million people in 2008" 1
  • NextWave Wireless holds licences in the 1.7GHz and 2.1GHz band.4

See also

Notes

  1. ^ THE IMPLICATIONS OF WiMAX FOR COMPETITION AND REGULATION, OECD, March 2006
  2. ^ WiMAX Forum — Frequently Asked Questions
  3. ^ WiSOA
  4. ^ a b "LTE". 3GPP web site. 2009. Retrieved August 20, 2011.
  5. ^ a b c "WiMAX and the IEEE 802.16m Air Interface Standard" (PDF). WiMax Forum. 4 April 2010. Retrieved 2012-02-07.

Literature

  • Martin Sauter: Communication Systems for the Mobile Information Society, John Wiley, September 2006, ISBN 0-470-02676-6
  • WiMAX Forum
  • IEEE 802.16 — The IEEE 802.16 Working Group on Broadband Wireless Access Standards
  • WiMAXPro.com - The Original WiMAX News, Information & Whitepapers
  • WiMAX.com - WiMAX News, Information & Whitepapers
  • comtechnews ComTech News on "Why WiMAX will Become the Future of Telecommunications"
  • WiMAX Day - News and Information about WiMAX Industry


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