WiMax 'muscular' data pipe starts its workout

Suzanne Choney • E-mail

The modem looks more like a coffeemaker or other home appliance than a means of quickly moving large data files, such as movies, to your computer.

And perhaps its design is intentional. Certainly, Sprint, which launched its WiMax broadband wireless network last week, hopes the odd-looking device will become as pervasive as coffeemakers in homes and offices around the country.

“If you like Wi-Fi, you’re going to love WiMax. It’s a hot spot the size of a city,” said John Polivka of Sprint. Right now, that city is only Baltimore, where Sprint built its first broadband wireless network.

Sprint says the next two cities “closest to commercial readiness” are Chicago and Washington D.C.

“We are also developing networks in Boston, Providence, Philadelphia, Dallas and Fort Worth,” said Polivka, although no time line has been announced.

WiMax has download speeds of between 2 and 4 megabits per second, and upload speeds of between 1 and 3 megabits per second.

But it’s not so much WiMax’s speed that’s of interest.

WiMax, considered a 4G, or fourth-generation, wireless network, is “data-centric,” providing a bigger “pipe” that can handle large files such as teleconferencing, video chat and movie downloads — “all those large files that people have difficulty trying to access across regular networks that aren’t built for data,” Polivka said.

That includes 3G, or third-generation, networks, he said, which are just starting to take hold in the United States and are exemplified by Apple’s iPhone 3G, and wireless broadband PC cards sold by Sprint, AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

“The iPhone was wonderful in that it made people aware of mobile multimedia,” Polivka said. “But if you think about the issues some people have had with connectivity, that’s the problem we’re solving with WiMax. The (3G) networks were never built for the applications that are now being asked of them.”

Other wireless carriers would disagree, citing improvements to 3G still to come.

'Fatter pipe in a mobile environment'
With the speed and capacity of WiMax, “what it means to consumers is a fatter pipe in a mobile environment, equivalent to DSL and cable modem speeds that they see now,” said William Ho, Current Analysis research director for wireless services.

Baltimore was selected as the first place for WiMax because “it’s a very typical U.S. city in that it represents certain wireless challenges, as well as for its demographics, with working professionals, and folks who are using the Internet at home and on the go,” Polivka said.

The “wireless challenges” include the topology of the city’s geography — “not flat,” he said, as well as being a “mix of brick and steel and wood structures, plus waterfront — all which can play havoc with radio frequency signal management.”

Nokia Nokia's N810 Internet Tablet WiMax Edition (around $450) has a 4.1-inch touchscreen display, as well as a keyboard.

A WiMax signal has a range of about six miles, in contrast to Wi-Fi, which covers about 150 feet indoors, and 300 feet outdoors.

“And, if you’ve ever tried to use Wi-Fi when everyone else is logged onto it, you know how painful it can be,” said Polivka, referring to connection speeds that can slow to a crawl. That is not an issue with WiMax.

WiMax laptops released
In conjunction with the launch of WiMax in Baltimore, laptop manufacturers Lenovo, Toshiba, Acer and Asus released Intel-based laptops that are both Wi-Fi and WiMax-enabled, even though the market for WiMax laptops is limited to Baltimore, “an island right now,” said Ho.

Sean Maloney, Intel executive vice president, in a press release described WiMax as a “game-changing and disruptive technology for a world that is rapidly shifting to an unwired, always connected Internet.”

Nokia, also a backer of WiMax, has introduced its N810 Internet Tablet WiMAX Edition, which costs around $450.

“Imagine if a parent has that Nokia tablet, and they have programs on the home digital video recorder,” said Ho. “They’d be able to use WiMax as the way to get that content onto the tablet. Then, at their kids’ soccer or baseball game, if dad is bored, he can watch Monday Night Football in concurrence with paying attention to his kids’ game.”

Using WiMax, “you can open up several movies playing simultaneously on your laptop, instead of just one,” said Polivka. “You can be on a video conference, staring at blueprints, and exchanging that data back and forth in real time; the connection is that powerful. It’s a more muscular network.”

In addition to Intel and Nokia, Google, Samsung, Motorola and three cable companies — Comcast, Time Warner and Bright House Networks — are among the companies behind the WiMax push.

MORE FROM DIGITAL HOME

Digital Home Section Front

Pew study cites personal tech frustrations Notebook sales dominate desktops in U.S. Prepaid cell plans for Web, e-mail proliferate WiMax launch in Baltimore is key for Sprint Camera combo devices not a one-stop solution Texting, driving don't mix, readers say Driving while distracted can be deadly Make your own 911 cell plan Chrome vs. IE 8: A side-by-side comparison Apple, AT&T text customers about iPhone software Digital Home Section Front   Add Digital Home headlines to your news reader: