Photos: WiMax in the Amazon Basin
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A WiMax tower on Parintins island connects two schools, a hospital, a community center and a university to a broadband network.
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(InfoWorld) - It's been a year since a Mobile WiMax service was launched in Seoul and one of the world's most wired cities became one of the most wireless. The service is based on WiBro, a South Korean system that has become a part of the 802.16e Mobile WiMax standard. Whereas Mobile WiMax encompasses three frequency bands and several signal bandwidths, WiBro covers a subset of these and is limited to 2.3GHz and an 8.75MHz bandwidth per channel. To mark the launch of its WiBro service last year, KT Corp., the former state-run telecom carrier, took journalists on a trip around Seoul to try out the service in a WiMax-equipped bus. The reporters came away impressed, able to watch Internet video streaming while surfing the Web and video conferencing all while driving down the street. But what's the reality a year later? Last week I returned to Seoul to test the service again, this time outside the controlled environment of a promotional bus ride. Seoul is among the first cities in the world to have Mobile WiMax, so the results provide an indication of what the rest of the world can look forward to in the future. I accessed the service while on the subway, in a bus, and sitting in a coffee shop, and the results were as impressive as they were in last year's staged demonstration. This was especially true on the subway. Riding the number 2 line from Samseong Station to City Hall, the journey has both underground and overground sections. It connects the Teheran Valley high-tech district in the south, crosses the Han River and ends in the heart of Seoul's business and media district. Throughout the 30-minute journey I did not lose the signal once, although the speed did fluctuate somewhat. It would often drop when the train moved out of a station and increase again when it arrived at the next stop. Web and e-mail access worked so well that I decided to try something a little more demanding and accessed streaming video news clips from the Yahoo Japan portal. The clips are encoded at 300k bps (bits per second) and played without any problem, even while the train was in motion. Equally surprising was that my little experiment did not draw the attention of the passengers sitting next to me. In a country where most high-end cell phones have TV reception, watching streaming video on the train doesn't seem to impress anybody! I also accessed an FTP site in the U.S. from the train and started to download a 40M-byte video file. The software indicated a download speed of up to 660k bps in stations, and about 320k bps when the train was in motion. Access from a bus produced much the same results, and while surfing from a coffee shop I enjoyed a connection that hit those same top speeds and remained stable. Technically the WiBro service appears a success, at least if the results of my small trial are anything to go by, so it's a surprise that it has attracted less than 10,000 users in its first year of service. The service costs a flat fee of 16,000 won (US$17.60) per month for unlimited use during the current trial period, and KT even throws in a WiBro adapter, which plugs into laptops via the USB port. So what's holding people back? Until now a limited number of WiBro adapters has been available. said Yeom Woojong, a spokesman for KT in Seoul. But now more companies are offering them, he said, and KT expects to attract more subscribers as the year goes on. At the start of the year it set a target to have 200,000 WiBro users by the end of 2007, and it's sticking to that number, Yeom said. Â
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InfoWorld - As the mobile phone industry scrambles to put cellphones in the hands of billions of unconnected people in emerging markets, less-expensive, higher-speed WiMax is likely to be the technology of choice to connect them to the Internet.
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Amimon gets its chips out for wireless high dev
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Researchers in China & rsquo;s forest begin to reap the benefits of WiFi. Also: NASA builds what it believes is the worlds fastest computer & hellip;. Sony releases new portable Playstation & hellip;. and more.
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A Wi-Fi hot-spot builder develops a decked-out trailer capable of delivering broadband access even in the middle of nowhere. The WanderPod gets its first test run at the launch of SpaceShipOne in the Mojave Desert. By Dan Brekke.
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Egypt&#39;s ancient city of Luxor has  become the latest spot to offer super high-speed WiMax wireless  Internet technology, encouraging visitors to stay connected  while they tour the city&#39;s Pharaonic temples.
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Wavesat Inc., a developer of broadband wireless chips, said today it has delivered the first-ever WiMAX chip, the DM256. The company is planning to make the chips generally available early next month.
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Mobile phone has 802.11b wireless networking capabilities and an integrated 1.3-megapixel digital camera.
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Wireless broadband gets a boost with optimized EV-DO installations in several regions.
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HP and Global Mobile demonstrated a mobile WiMax station for use in hospitals.
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Europe appears to be fertile ground for new WiMax networks. Spain is the latest country to embrace the emerging high-end broadband wireless technology, following recent deployments in France, Ireland, and the U.K.
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New technologies wirelessly transmit high-definition video.
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(InfoWorld) - As the mobile phone industry scrambles to put cellphones in the hands of billions of unconnected people in emerging markets, less-expensive, higher-speed WiMax is likely to be the technology of choice to connect them to the Internet. "We will see some operators in emerging markets upgrade their cellular networks to support lower-speed data services such as e-mail, but there is a very strong case for deploying WiMax to provide high-speed Internet services in these regions," David Taylor, director of strategic operations high-growth markets in the mobile devices division of Motorola, said Wednesday in an interview at theÂ 3GSM World CongressÂ in Barcelona. WiMax networks require fewer base stations than 3G (third-generation) higher-speed mobile phone networks, according to Taylor. And not only are WiMax base stations cheaper, they also consume less energy because their systems don't need cooling. That's a huge benefit as powering networks cost efficiently can be a big challenge in emerging markets. Add to that the speed of WiMax -- up to 10GbpsÂ -- and the result is "a very strong case for WiMax in emerging markets," Taylor said. "Particularly small and medium-size businesses in rural areas can be served very cost-efficiently with this technology." Pakistan has already announced plans to deploy WiMax. So what happens to the many cellular networks already built or being built in these markets? They won't disappear, according to Taylor. On the contrary, operators will continue to use them to deliver basic voice and text services. Some may also decide to upgrade them to GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) or EDGE (Enhanced Data GSM Environment) technologies to support low-speed data services. "This is not a costly upgrade," he said, unlike an upgrade to 3G or LTE (Long-Term Evolution), the cellular rival to wireless WiMax. Motorola has learned "valuable lessons" about designing products for users in emerging markets, Taylor said. "Simplicity is crucial," he said. "Handsets should have few features -- they should be touch and go." Reliability is another issue. Phones must be robust and not easily breakable. "Many people spend two months of income or more to purchase a phone," he said. "They've made a huge investment in a piece of technology they expect to work -- always." Low power consumption and long battery life are also crucial as many people in emerging markets still live without electricity and need to pay to have their batteries recharged.
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SAN FRANCISCO - Intel Corporation recently disclosed key technical details of its upcoming wireless broadband chip for WiMAX products, which will enable long-distance, high-speed wireless Internet access for homes and businesses.
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An emerging wireless communications technology called WiMAX, which can blanket entire cities with high-speed Internet connections, will rival DSL and cable as the preferred way to connect homes and businesses to the Internet, Intel Corp. said on Tuesday.
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Isle of Man steals Europe's wireless limelight The Isle of Man has got Europe's first commercial WiMAX network - or, at least, a wireless network using WiMAX equipment, even if it's not actually on a WiMAX frequency.â¦