WiMAX point blank

WiMAX is going to be the next thing after the war of spectrum and some unfinished plans of the government. WiMAX is the acronym of World Wide Interoperability for microwave access.

What is WiMAX ?
WiMAX is a technology which is aimed at providing data through a wireless medium

It is based on IEEE 802.16 standard which is also called wirelessMAN. It was created by the WiMAX forum in june 2001 to promote the conformance and the interoperability of the standard.

WiMAX was used by intel to assist Federal communications commission(FCC) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency in their communication efforts in the areas affected by hurricane Katrina which formed on the 23 august 2005 and dissipated 7 days later.

What are the uses of WiMAX ?
It can used for the following purposes
1. Connecting Wi-Fi hotspots
2. Provide wireless access for the last mile broadband access
3. High speed data and telecom services

• A Wimax base station can cover almost 7 km
• It can offer wireless internet access at speeds over 14Mbps against the conventional data cards offering a speed upto 256 kbps
• This new service can provide the telecom operators the edge, provided it is available at a reasonable price.

The worlds fastest growing telecom market is India and with around 2 million subscribers adding every month, the telecom operators are doing their level best to gain an advantage. The mobile operators such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar want it to be clubbed with 3G licenses whereas the smaller community of internet service providers such as Tata communiactions want it to be separate. To add to this jumble, seven telecom operators were given the go ahead and the spectrum to launch WiMAX. Out of these BSNL(Bharat Sanchar Nigam) has completed a pilot project in six cities and another 100 are on the services roll out at the end of this year.TCL the ISP has a $500 million plan to roll out its WiMAX services. This competition will surely give customers better technology at a reduced price.

COAI (Cellular Operations Association of India) has been advocating that WiMAX should be a part of IMT 2000, the global standard for 3G. This could benefit the companies whose services are based on GSM. The CDMA companies want it to be seperate.

Globally the WiMAX services are being rolled out this year on a mass scale with international revenues being projected to reach $14 billion by 2009. If demand for this service picks up India could be a huge market but as of now it is still a dream till the spectrum is made available.