WiMax

Is anyone else wondering why we don't seem to be hearing a lot about WiMAX in Australia or is it just me? I would hate to be a Telco at the moment! So what is WiMAX? It's a bit like WiFi - wireless access, on steroids.

The latest WiFi technology will give you connection speeds of around 54mbps. Fast eh? The problem with WiFi though is that it is notoriously unreliable over distances more than say 10 metres or 30 feet. So you have to have all these little access points scattered around the place if you want to cover a large area. This is why Telstra has WiFi access points at every McDonalds in most Australian major cities. At every one of these Maccas they have to have a wireless access point that connects back into their network.

WiMAX however gets around all that. One access point can cover a 50km radius with connection speeds of up to 74mbps! Yowch! So in other words theoretically, one access point on the top of the Rialto or Eureka tower in Melbourne could cover all of the city and suburbs! In fact  it was reported that Intel at COMDEX in Las Vegas in May 2005 did a WiMAX demonstration where they setup a access point that covered a 500 mile radius! Yikes! At 74mbps. Now when you hear today that Nokia is now talking seriously with Intel about WiMAX, they reportedly think it will 'complement' their exisiting 3G, GSM, GPRS technology, Telcos have got a problem, especially those with a lot invested in 3G infrastructure and licensing.

In addition to this Motorola have done a licensing deal with Skype. In case you missed it, Skype is the most popular VoIP software out there. It allows you to make voice calls to other people who have the software for free and to normal telephones for about 5 cents Australian per minute.

So in the not too distant future you maybe making a mobile voice call or video call on a device that is a dumbed down network device, that looks, smells and tastes like a phone but it costs you nothing to use.