WiMAX

WiMAX is the popular name of IEEE802.16 standard, which may become the international FWA standard. Other FWA standards have shown not to be competitive in the access networks. In some cases FWA is used for business users and in the backbone network. FWAs lack of success in the access networks is due to different reasons; among others the lack of open standards and the requirement for Line of Site in the installations.

WiMAX is also developing to become mobile.  It may be fixed wireless access now, but is expected to go mobile in 2008.  The term FWA is also changed to BWA (Broadband Wireless Access), which encompasses both FWA and mobile wireless access.

WiMAX is, like Wi-Fi, becoming a standard, which is supported by several market actors. WiMAX is forecasted to be a simple and cheap technology with long coverage and high capacity. Coverage of 50 Km and capacity of around 70 Mbps is a reality in this technology. It is, however, important to note that the capacity offered over long distances is only a fraction of the maximum capacity. And WiMAX as access technology is offered in distances of 5 to 10 Km. WiMAX will then be a good complementary/competitive infrastructure to traditional broadband. Another important aspect is that 70 Mbps will only be achieved if frequency bandwidth of 20 MHz is allocated and assigned by the local authorities. Many regulators will probably assign smaller frequency bands to the potential WiMAX operators.