20-02-2004 : WiMax is creating quite a stir in
technical circles and BritishTelecom is already using it to bring
broadband to four rural locations, in a field trial seen as
a prelude to major rollout of
WiMax across rural Britain.
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These trials involve broadband fixed
access, with customers attaching a receiver to their houses,
but the telco is very interested in the idea that more
advanced versions of WiMax will support high-speed mobile
broadband.
"If the potential benefits of WiMax,
such as voice services and portability, are realised, then
there might be a case for rolling out a WiMax service more
widely," said Ian Robinson, head of emerging products at BT
Retail, on Thursday.
As previously reported, BT's trials are
taking place in Ballingry in Fife, Scotland, Pwllheli in
Wales, Porthleven in Cornwall and Campsie in Northern Ireland.
Robinson, who was speaking at the IIR
ISP Forum in London, said that BT hopes to launch its
radio-broadband service in more rural areas -- although this
will need subsidies from local government agencies.
But in the long-term, BT is eyeing up
the possibility of offering WiMax services to more than just
rural broadband-have-nots.
Its broadband fixed access trials use a
version of WiMax known as 802.16d, but a more advanced version
is also under development called 802.16e. It supports mobility
and should allow laptops and PDAs to connect to a WiMax
antenna from a distance of several kilometres, like a mobile
phone talking to the nearest base station.
Intel is giving plenty of support to
WiMax, in the same way that it aggressively backed Wi-Fi. The
chip maker said this week that it expects to produce 802.16
chips later this year, and that laptops including the
technology could go on sale in 2006.
"We will have silicon on it certainly
this year. You'll see 802.16 in notebooks, well, it's
difficult to say. I think 2006. That's the timeframe I'm
comfortable with," said Anand Chandrasekher, vice-president
and general manager of Intel's Mobile Platforms Group.
And once users find themselves with a
WiMax-enabled device, they'll be looking for a network to
which to connect. "If all these laptops are going to be
supporting WiMax, then the question for BT is 'who is going to
be handling the network side?'," explained Robinson.
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Update 23-02-2005 : British Telecom will launch WiMax in rural areas
ahead of cities following the success of its trials of the high-speed
wireless technology.
The telco, which is on track to deliver 100
percent broadband coverage in Northern Ireland using ADSL and WiMax
before the year is out, hinted recently that wireless broadband tests
had gone so well that country dwellers across the UK could benefit
from the technology before urban inhabitants.
"It's demand-driven, but we shall see," said
Chet Patel, general manager for BT Retail Internet Access Products.
"We've proved the technology in terms of what it can and cannot do and
customer feedback has been very good."
BT's researchers took WiMax to four remote
locations in the UK to test it in the most severe weather conditions
over the most testing terrain. Seventy-three percent of wireless
broadband users in rural areas expressed 'extreme satisfaction' with
the service, although Patel said the results may not reflect the
service accurately.
"That's to be expected though when you take
broadband to them instead of their dial-up service," he said.
Patel added that BT's tests have not been
without problems. "We've found out where you can deploy services,"
said Patel. "Just by lifting an antenna by two inches means it [the
signal] can go further. Things like planning regulations and stuff
that really seems trivial stops customers getting a service. It's
those things that led us to roll out in Northern Ireland."
Around 5 percent of the UK population cannot
currently get broadband, typically because they live in sparsely
populated rural areas where it has not been economically viable for BT
to upgrade their local exchange; a wireless technology such as WiMax
is likely to be a more cost-effective option which could solve this
problem.
Japanese urban Wi-Max - a low cost service aimed at people who
don't already have a mobile phone or landline.
Update 15-03-2005 : A self-install WiMax box can cut Tokyo
residents free from cables with truly mobile WiMax. It's only a
software upgrade away, say Airspan.
By December this year,
Tokyo-dwellers will be able to get multi-megabit broadband wherever
they live or work in the city when a WiMax router goes on sale and
other cities are tipped to follow suit.
Communications operator
Yozan is rolling out 600 AS.MAX base stations from wireless
broadband vendor Airspan, enough to provide WiMax connectivity across
Tokyo. Yozan customers will simply buy the
corresponding AS.MAX customer device, a new product which the company
claims is the first indoor WiMax equipment that users can install
themselves.
Despite the ready availability of broadband in
Tokyo, Yozan will sell the service as a cheap alternative for mobile
people who do not want to be tied to a contract for a fixed line. "It
will be pitched much cheaper than DSL or cable, for users who don't
have a phone at home," said Paul Senior, vice-president of marketing
at Airspan. "This is a whole new market for wireless broadband."
When these people move home or office, they will
take the WiMax equipment with them and set up in their new location.
It can be connected by wire to a PC, or alternatively customers can
add Wi-Fi connectivity.
The service will support the WiMax
Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE)
802.16-2004 specification, but the base stations delivering it can be
upgraded to the mobile WiMax standard, IEEE 802.16e, said Senior:
"Once there are chips for 802.16e, at the end of 2006, the base
stations will just need a software upgrade."
The Tokyo base stations will have multiple 10MHz
channels, each of which can provide 30 Mbps peak rate, which will be
shared by users within 500m of the base station. The frequency it will
use is not disclosed: "It's a Japan-specific frequency band, and Yozan
needs to complete negotiations to use it," said Senior.
A trial will begin in June, followed by the network
buildout from October, and commercial service launch in December, said
Senior. "We are looking to repeat this with other partners in cities
like New York or London," he added. |
