mainstreetmark said:
I had my hands on a 802.16 router for a while (clearwire.com). Everybody hears "wifi" in "wi-max" and assumes they're in small pc-card format. The receiver I had was about 5x4 inches and had to, in my area, be constantly oriented towards the signal. They even suggest sticking it by a window or on the outside of a house.
Mark's right. I did a lot of research into WiMax this past semester so I've picked up a lot on it. 802.16a is not designed for personal laptop use but rather broadband at home -- a good alternative to DSL or cable since the reach is so far. However don't expect 70 Mbps at 30 miles. I read that at 5 miles the best bandwidth was something like 30 Mbps, and that was with one user. WiMax is capable of handling up to 1,000 users per access point, but this is of course a best case scenario. At 30 miles away, expect bandwidth far below 1 Mbps.
It's a good stopgap solution between little broadband (cable/DSL) and big broadband (fiber).
You asked for availability. The standards are to be ratified, I believe, this year, and conforming hardware is expected in late 2005 or early 2006. So if you're still using dialup because you're too far away for broadband, don't worry, as a solution is coming.
FYI, 802.16e is in theory much more portable, but more for automobiles. 802.20 is designed specifically for mobility (50 Mbps at 110 mph or so), while 802.16e is rated at a lower speed (around 90 mph). The advantage of 802.16e is that it's downwardly compatible with 802.16a, much like 802.11g with 802.11b. Expect 802.16e plans to be available late 2006 and into mid 2007. If they made vehicular access plans cheap extensions of existing broadband (say an extra $5 per month per vehicle for 1 mbps), we will begin to see the real rise of telematics systems in vehicles that can draw lots of rich data from the Internet to provide services in vehicles not yet possible due to inherent problems with existing systems.
