The
latest buzzword in the Information Communication and Technology
(ICT) era is WiMAX. And, if expectations about the potential
of WiMAX are met, it will have an enormous impact on the whole
scenario of broadband services and the overall business model
of service providers. It will compete facetoface, both on
price and quality with existing service providers, globally.
WiMAX's ability to support users on the move (via hot spots
or portable services) puts it in competition with cellular
data services, and 3G in particular. Moreover, its potential
as a business or residential service that combines fixed and
wireless data connectivity will make it an attractive option
for the user, whether at home, at work or on the road. India's
growing economy combined with a huge demand for broadband
makes it a large market for WiMAX.
However,
for developing countries like India, the key focal point of
broadband deployment is in urban and suburban areas, and will
remain so in the near future. Nonetheless, what would fuel
the growth of WiMAX are the current low technology penetration
and inferior quality of the infrastructure that have so far
prevented massscale DSL deployment and hence necessitates
the need for alternate broadband technologies like WiMAX.
In this situation, WiMAX is expected to emerge as an excellent
solution. WiMAX technology enables broadband wireless networks
in urban as well as rural areas.
Worldwide
Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), the common
name associated to the IEEE 802.16, is a wireless networking
standard from the WiFi family of standards, including 802.11a,
802.11b and 802.11g. WiMAX scores superior range and bandwidth.
It is unbelievably faster; WiMAX is the faster, longer range
version of WiFi. It can transfer around 70 Mbps over a distance
of up to 30 miles to thousands of users from a single base
station. It is an exciting and unique technology that delivers
highspeed, fixed and mobile broadband services wirelessly
to large areas with much less infrastructure than is needed
today. In fact, the WiMAX technology has the potential to
enable service carriers to converge the allIPbased network
for tripleplay services such as data, voice, and video.
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