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Intel demos WiMax
technology
Other Topics: Wireless Technology
of 2006 - WiMAX, WiMAX Chipset Launch
by Intel
Intel
May 06, 2005
Intel Corp. conducted a live demonstration of its WiMax broadband
wireless capability for attendees of Interop on Tuesday, offering
high-speed Internet access over a 500-square-mile area around Las Vegas.
Intel Corp. conducted a live demonstration of its WiMax broadband
wireless capability for attendees of Interop here Tuesday, offering
high-speed Internet access over a 500-square-mile area around Las Vegas. |
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The demonstration included live audio and video wireless feeds into the
Mandalay Bay conference center where Interop is being held, as well as
12 miles into the desert, out to a golf course near the city's southern
edge and into a mobile home traveling down the fabled Las Vegas strip.
The WiMax signal was broadcast from atop the Stratosphere Hotel on the
northern edge of the city's downtown area.
Although wind in the desert location caused the audio signal there to
break up, Sean Maloney, general manager of Intel's mobility group, said
the signals were generally "spectacular," running at speeds of
7Mbit/sec. or greater.
The technology was based on Intel's PRO/Wireless 5116 broadband
interface running on hardware from Tel Aviv-based Alvarion Ltd., Maloney
said. Alvarion provides WiMax-ready hardware called BreezeMAX 3500 for
service providers in France and Spain, according to a statement on the
Alvarion Web site.
Maloney said the WiMax signal was transmitted from laptop computers
communicating with an Alvarion base station at the Stratosphere. The
laptop gear used in the demonstration is still being perfected by a
variety of companies, he said.
Such networks are already under development in Korea and Japan, and a
downtown WiMax network in Tokyo is expected to be fully operational in
six months, Maloney said.
In comments to reporters, Maloney said U.S. engineers have helped make
WiMax effective. But other countries have been faster to implement it
because they have available wireless spectrum that the U.S. has not
provided. Although the U.S. Federal Communications Commission
understands the need for more spectrum for uses such as WiMax, that
spectrum has not yet been released. He said between 60MHz and 100MHz of
spectrum is needed, "and more beyond that."
WiMax is likely to serve as an adjunct to more traditional Wi-Fi hot
spots, both public and private, and will be used to fill in areas not
served by WiFi or to provide back haul connections to conventional
networks, Intel officials said. Asked whether telephone providers in the
U.S. might balk at the idea of WiMax proliferation, which could provide
cheap voice-over-IP services to a variety of customers, Maloney said
that some Asian carriers have added wireless and Wi-Fi to round out
their service offerings.
"Service providers are understandably twitchy," he said. The proper
response should be to "reach customers in the best way." |
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