802.16 WiMax Wireless Broadband on the Horizon

securitas writes "Products using the emerging IEEE 802.16 WiMax wireless broadband standard should be available early in 2005. WiMax's hundreds of megabits per second bandwidth looks promising to many vendors and service providers who met in San Jose at last week's Wireless Communications Association (WCA) International Technical Symposium & Business Expo. The point-to-multipoint 802.16d standard, with a 50-kilometre range, is expected to be complete by February, ratified in March and deployed in the first quarter of 2005." (Read on for more.)

"The IEEE 802.16e spec, which will support mobile applications, is expected to be complete by early 2005. Nextel, Sprint and BellSouth are all interested in the technology to deploy services like streaming video and TV, wireless phones, and high-speed Internet service in unserved, low-density areas near high-density ones. Mobile operators in developing countries like Brazil's NEOTEC group have already successfully tested an 802.16 wireless broadband deployment. Intel communications group executive VP and GM, Sean Maloney, is banking on it. From the article: 'We believe that WiMax can happen, and be widely deployed, and be a big deal in the next three years the same way Wi-Fi has been a big deal the last two years.' Mirrors at Network World Fusion, Techworld and PCWorld. What happens when techies start to build their own 802.16x WiMax VoIP systems?"

802.16

[Anonymous Coward]

0.05 better than 802.11!

great

[Anonymous Coward]

great, even more pain [unbehagen.com] !

hmmmm...

[Spytap]

Nextel, Sprint and BellSouth are all interested in the technology
Great...just what's needed from a phone provider: more wireless technology that they can provide terrible reception with.

yikes

[sirmalloc]

that's bound to make more than a few people sterile.

50 Km range uh?

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

The point-to-multipoint 802.16d standard, with a 50-kilometre range

Omnidirectional antenna-equipped routers will double as handy microwave ovens.

Re:50 kilometers ? Power consumption ?

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

The battery is thing still dragging mobile computing , it's still 1970's space-age technology

Because before 70's "space age" batteries, they were using what? gerbil-powered dynamos?

Re:yikes

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Not to worry, most geeks who are the target of this new uber-cool technology only ever try to impregnate tissues. I doubt you'll see a dip in the nation's birth rate because of WiMax.

Just boost wifi power to, oh say, 800-1400 watts

[weave]

Imagine the benefits of allowing wifi card makers to boost the power of their transmiters. It would make the microwave oven obsolete too. An entire dinner could be cooked while it sits on the dinner table, oe for that matter, before it even leaves the grocery store. Cows could be cooked while they stand in the fields. Also, no need for water purification plants, since all rivers and lakes would be under a constant boil. And, best yet, no need for artificial heat in your house during those cold winter months, since you'd be warmed from within!

50 K range?

[crawdad62]

Wow you won't even need a "sniffer." You'll be able to smell that from the next city.