I nearly was until I\u00a0 visited\u00a0 Intel in Portland to find out more about WiMAX and what their views are about its future as a mobile service. I was greeted by an enthusiast Tim Sweeney, Manager of the Advanced Applications lab. His first words were: \u201cI am not going to convince you about WiMAX, you are going to convince yourself.\u201d He handed me a WiMAX enabled laptop to play with for a day and convinced I was.<\/p>\n
After my visit to various WiMAX facilities and laboratories, I left Intel eager to surf the web. I travelled by light\u00a0 rail to where I am staying while in Portland, a suburb called Forest Heights. I immediately powered up the laptop and looked at the EE Publisher\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
I was reading it faster than I do at home with my Telkom do broadband ADSL. I tried several other websites around the world, watched an NSA video and a few YouTube clips. Before I realised tit he computer voice in the train announced next station Sunset Transfer centre, my destination. In the 30 minutes\u00a0 that I had travelled on the train, I did not loose signal once.<\/p>\n
When I walked into my son\u2019s house, I logged on again and looked at what ever website came to mind. I reluctantly returned the laptop the next day.<\/p>\n
I measured the speed regularly and it consistently\u00a0 provided a downlink speed of 5Mbps and 500 kbps (the Clearwire\u00a0 specification states a download of\u00a0 between 3 \u2013 6 Mbps with burst of up to 10Mbps) and an upload speed of up to 1Mbps. Forest Heights is a very hilly location and not regarded as the best covered WiMAX area.<\/p>\n
I am now playing with a Clear 4G mobile USB dongle which Intel lent me for the rest of may stay here.<\/p>\n
I am convinced that WiMAX is an excellent mobility platform, better than what I get on my hand-held at home or even my ADSL.<\/p>\n
Intel firmly believes WiMAX is the next-generation of wireless technology designed to enable pervasive, high-speed mobile Internet access to the widest array of devices including notebook PCs, handsets, smartphones, and consumer electronics such as gaming devices, cameras, camcorders, music players, and more.<\/p>\n
I have always been fascinated by the WiMAX technology. I am more than ever convinced that LTE vendors are concerned about WiMAX and do not want to admit that it is a working technology while they still have a few years to go before LTE will be at that stage.<\/p>\n
WiMAX in South Africa? It the age old story why we in South Africa continue to suffer – ICASA\u2019s inability to sort out the spectrum allocation. ICASA initially bandied around a 20 MHz slot for each WiMAX operator which is inadequate, then they talked about 30 MHz which according to the experts is the minimum required. Intel experts say 50 \u2013 100 MHz would be the real answer to offer a viable pervasive mobile WiMAX service. I guess we will have to be happy with WiMAX as a stand in for ADSL?<\/p>\n
I will be talking to Clearwire , the largest WiMAX operator in the USA, next week. Watch this space.<\/p>\n