WiMax - that stands for 'Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access' has remained hyped in last 2 years. Apart from ringing danger bells for already established wireless standards, it promised some real breakthroughs among wireless technologies. After the introduction of Fixed WiMax, Mobile WiMax came into the forefront. Mobile WiMax - is a wide-area network technology intended to deliver 1 Mbp/s or more to devices in motion. It will be based on IEEE 802.16e, a specification approved late last year, and products will be certified by the WiMax Forum industry group.

It is interesting to note here that Intel and other vendors have been criticized over the past few years for over-hyping WiMax. Intel has predicted that WiMax will spread like Wi-Fi wireless LANs have, thanks to standardized high-volume manufacturing. Sean Maloney, Intel executive vice president and general manager of its mobility group, demonstrated the technology during a keynote address at Intel Developer Forum recently in San Francisco. In the demonstration, Maloney used an 802.16e PC Card in a notebook that was attached to an electric scooter and was using Intel's Napa platform. The system delivered about 2 Mbp/s of throughput and supported a live video blog from a camera on the scooter, as well as presenting driving directions and a real-time weather forecast from the Web.

WiMax will be used in any of a broad range of frequency bands, and different bands are to be used in different regions of the world, in most cases by carriers who have licensed the spectrum.
The PC Card coming this year will use the 2.3GHz-to-2.5GHz band, which according to Maloney is being examined for WiMax in Asia. In the U.S., Sprint Nextel holds a large number of licenses for spectrum around the 2.5GHz band and ClearWire Corp. already offers a mobile wireless broadband service in that frequency range in some areas. Maloney also showed off a prototype chipset for both WiMax and Wi-Fi, capable of shifting among frequencies in the 2.3GHz to 2.5GHz band, the 3.5GHz band and the entire 5GHz band, he said. Those ranges encompass the 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz bands that are used for 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi wireless LANs, as well as the upcoming high-speed 802.11n Wi-Fi specification, he said.

Within about three years, Intel expects Wi-Fi and WiMax to merge onto one chipset. The chipset shown is the first step toward that. Maloney said. The first generation of WiMax products, designed for use in one place, hit the market in certified form in late January after some missed targets in standards approval and testing. Maloney said there have been "significant" increases in volume and declines in prices on those products already.

According to an industry analyst Nate Anderson “Early adopters may want to think twice, however. Despite the immense advantages of the technology over conventional WiFi, WiMax is not yet ready for prime time, though rollouts could begin in the first half of 2007.”

“WiMax has all sorts of implications for the industry, and the sooner it gets here, the better. This could well be a "disruptive technology" that allows new players to quickly build massive urban networks without laying fiber or cable, and it will allow municipalities to offer citywide wireless Internet access without expensive build outs. High bandwidth WiMax deployments could quickly challenge the traditional monopolies held by cable and telephone companies by rendering the urban physical network obsolete and lowering the bar to entry (for companies like DirecTV, which has been pondering wireless broadband for some time).”, Nate Anderson further added.

In Pakistan, where many new technologies are introduced after getting licenses from PTA, WiMax will also be setup soon. ZTE has been very aggressive in holding the WiMax business as the company started its testing of WiMAX equipment in different parts of Pakistan last year. Let's wait for Intel WiMax card and laptops containing WiMax support. Imagine a WiMax powered life bandwidth freedom with mobility, wow!