Will WiMAX 2 revitalize the WiMAX industry?

[legion125]

Sorta long but a good article. I think WiMAX is done with the carriers. But with other industrys that use M2M or have other data needs, this may be a viable solution.

 

http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/special-reports/will-wimax-2-revitalize-wimax-industry

[S4GRU]

WiMax is very popular here in New Mexico with rural governments, especially the Pueblos (Indian Reservations). Up the road here in Taos is a local utility company that offers WiMax to its customers. It is very popular with rural customers who cannot get DSL. Also, the Santa Clara Pueblo and San Illdefonso Pueblo offer WiMax to its tribal members, almost like a wireless DSL utility.

 

In these applications, WiMax is great. You can reach lots of rural customers with a last mile alternative that is much less expensive than traditional DSL. And these customer are ecstatic...getting 8MB to 12MB download speeds. Often faster than people a few miles away who can get DSL from Windstream.

 

But as a Nationwide Wireless network, I think WiMax is dead. I can't see it being in smartphones and tablets again.

[bigzeto]

WiMax seems to work well when stationary. Not so much when moving from cell to cell.

[autoprime]

i had no idea there were so many independent wimax companies in the USA. do they all use the same freq?

 

with some of those wimax apks you could have some fun with the other networks...

[S4GRU]

It's highly variable. Most do not run on EBS/BRS like Clearwire. There are many colleges who have WiMax that run on EBS frequencies though.

 

WiMax can be run at 2.3 GHz, 2.5 GHz, 3.3 GHz and 3.5 GHz. Most of the utility companies that run WiMax do so in the 3GHz range, where it's easier and cheaper to get local spectrum. One of the Pueblos around here are using an Expedience system (like the Clearwire Pre-WiMax system). And they run it at 900MHz.

 

They originally were trying to use inexpensive 3GHz frequencies, but it won't penetrate adobe. So they switched to some 900 frequencies that would. But WiMax hasn't been designed for use on lower frequencies and the WiMax Forum wouldn't help them to try because they are such a small customer with only 500 POP's. So they had to switch to Motorola Expedience that would run on 900. But the max speeds Expedience can handle are much slower. Like around 3MB max.

[autoprime]

very interesting.. stinks the E4GT only supports 2.5ghz :/

 

do you know of any sort of list that mentions all the other wimax customers in the united states?

[S4GRU]

very interesting.. stinks the E4GT only supports 2.5ghz :/

 

do you know of any sort of list that mentions all the other wimax customers in the united states?

 

I don't know of an exhaustive list, but Wikipedia has the bigger WiMax providers listed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deployed_WiMAX_networks#U

[Sgt. Slaughter]

It's highly variable. Most do not run on EBS/BRS like Clearwire. There are many colleges who have WiMax that run on EBS frequencies though.

 

2.3 GHz, 2.5 GHz, 3.3 GHz and 3.5 GHz. Most of the utility companies that run WiMax do so in the 3GHz range, where it's easier and cheaper to get local spectrum. One of the Pueblos around here are using an Expedience system (like the Clearwire Pre-WiMax system). And they run it at 900MHz.

 

They originally were trying to use inexpensive 3GHz frequencies, but it won't penetrate adobe. So they switched to some 900 frequencies that would. But WiMax hasn't been designed for use on lower frequencies and the WiMax Forum wouldn't help them to try because they are such a small customer with only 500 POP's. So they had to switch to Motorola Expedience that would run on 900. But the max speeds Expedience can handle are much slower. Like around 3MB max.

 

very interesting there. I always thought it was weird that WiMax was only provisioned to work on those 3 freq while LTE is to work on a ton of wide range freq.

 

Didn't make much sense to me less they can figure out a way to boost the signal penetration on those freq or least alleviate that problem whether it be from the handset side(stronger power modem in phone) or the tower side somehow. Otherwise trying to "standardize" the use of WiMax makes no sense if that means current tech(phones/towers) can't supply signal to enough users...

 

Here is how bad its implemented right now. I'm 0.5mi from the tower and I get 0 bars for WiMax on my phones outside my home. I'm between 2 towers evidently and the one i'm closest to has its antennae pointed away from me more less so I get the short side of the signal from that tower...(made no sense to me at first b/c I always thought they provided a perfect circle of signal around the tower and wasn't directional in the slightest bit. Guess at least in my case thats not the case as I have had probably over 30 calls escalated and super high advance tech and CS to try to get this fixed including them sending out field surveyors to re-do the coverage map since it showed me able to get full in house signal at my home...That obviously never happened since they are not putting $ in WiMax anymore....Just lucky I get WiFi 90% of where I am. lol