General manager of Intel's mobility group says it will become a global standardIntel is known for their wild enthusiasm about all new technologies, especially if they've taken a major part in developing it. WiMAX is no exception to this. Sean Maloney, general manager of Intel's mobility group, has stated that WiMAX will become a global standard.
WiMAX, as taken from Intel's site, is defined as "a standards-based wireless technology that provides high-throughput broadband connections over long distances". Basically, it's like 802.11a/b/g on steroids. Where regular WiFi usually gets pretty weak once you're 5-15 meters away from your house, WiMAX apparently has a range that can span large cities.
Some time in the past, Intel realized that providing everyone with broadband through the use of copper/fibre was not feasible, and they set out to work on what has now become WiMAX. If things pan out for this technology, we will without a doubt finally be living in that age where everything and everyone are connected, as has been hyped for years. Sure, we have cellular networks now, but has anyone looked at the rates carriers charge for data transmission? Through the nose, and then some.
He said Intel's feeling is that we're heading towards a global WiMAX standard and will see economies of scale. Signals, he said, penetrate better than people expected and there's a growing confidence people will give coverage. He said that Intel is arguing that the spectrum for WiMAX should be technologically agnostic because something better than WiMAX may come along. In Europe, the argument revolves around 2.5GHz and 3.5GHz, he said, but Intel is from a camp that says more is better. We're impatient but a government around the world is going to lead on this. Korea is already leading on WiMAX at 2.49GHz. It has allocated WiMAX spectrum already, he said.
I, for one, am eagerly awaiting to see the possibilities of this technology. In Vancouver's lower mainland, we basically have two ISPs, both of which are equivalent to a Nazi regime. Starting your own cable ISP is out of the question, as you need a certain un-named company's permission (kind of funny how a private company owns all of the coax lines here, yes?), and starting a DSL ISP is also out of the question due to government control of telephone lines and the costs involved. An unregulated WiMAX band would allow anyone with the right equipment and a connection to a backbone to run a small ISP. Monopolists beware -- your time is up.
Article Link: Intel wildly optimistic about WiMAX
