The Advancement Goes Sour

I recently wrote about Advancements In Mobile Connectivity i.e the introduction of WiMAX into the UK. Whilst having a look around for any news on this development I found an interesting article publish on the 25th of July, over at Broadband Expert.

Now heres some information on what WiMAX is taken from my previous article.

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.

Wireless Broadband Network provider Bluenowhere, a member of the Mobile WiMAX Accerleration Group (M-WAG) have issued a report detail how they feel that a WiMAX rollout around the UK is ‘unlikely‘.

Bluenowheres Chief Executive Harry Aldridge advised this last week.

…the national establishment of this next generation technology was made all the more unlikely because of the lack of backing in the UK by any of the major network operators.

The possibility of WiMAX being used by mobile network operators as their Fourth Generation (4G) solution was not currently expected by M-WAG.

Could this be a classic case of the powers in charge not backing a scheme which could technically benefit a huge number of people who either cannot get connected to the internet or cannot afford to be connected?

The company (clearly annoyed at this) have backed claims made by The Guardian which suggest that in locations where broadband speed is less then 2MBPS then a WiMAX signal booster would be appropriate.

Whether this assessment is accurate remains to be seen, although whatever steps are taken by network operators it is still the government that has made the promise of 2Mbps minimum universal broadband access to every home in the UK and it is likely that it will eventually have to use every technological tool at its disposal to make this promise a reality.