Advancements in Mobile Connectivity

Being fairly ‘into’ mobile technology, has its pros and cons. The Pros included being able to say I was one of the first people in my circle of friends to have such ‘revolutionary’ products such as Mobile Broadband and the cons that I really didn’t know what WiMAX was until earlier this morning.

WiMAX is a commercial name given to the IEEE(Look it up) standard number 802.16, for next generation wireless technology. As a relative advancement from WiFi, and indeed Pay As You Go Mobile Broadband, WiMAX delivers extremely high speed data connectivity. Industry experts believe that WiMAX will ‘usurp‘ traditional home internet/broadband connections in the same way as the rise of the mobile phone over the land line.

In simple terms this colourful diagram describes how WiMAX will work in relation to a single house:

WiMAX is essentially a mobile internet network which is completely wireless from the point of leaving the Transmitters. What is so special in my mind is its uncanny ability to allow people as far as 30 miles away, which means for largely rural countries such as Africa it is perfect in allowing people to have access to the internet. Which in my mind is not a bad thing.

An Authority on Mobile Broadband Technologies: Mobile Broadband Blog summarises the future for WiMAX.

According to the WiMAX Forum, in March 2009 there were 468 WiMAX deployments throughout 139 countries and the number of WiMAX certified products, including PDAs, laptops and other mobile devices is expected to reach 180 in 2009. With a growing user base and products already on the market, why then are so many people touting this new technological development as a ‘failure’ before it has been given time to take off?

One reason could be that WiMAX is more suited to countries with a lower population density and/or a less developed communications infrastructure. In the UK, our mobile phone network covers nearly 100% of the population. While its true that some rural areas are poorly resourced in terms of broadband provision, the need for a nationwide WiMAX roll out is debatable.

On the flipside, however, if WiMAX is a success, it could not only take precedence over broadband and WiFi but also potentially the phone companies too, promising to provide different ways of transmitting data including VoIP. VoIP software Skype has proven to be incredibly popular thus far, even securing its own iPhone application and is set to boom even more if WiMAX lives up to expectations, pushing traditional telecommunication methods further into the background.