What is the Current Status of WiMAX?

PalletBoy asks: "I live in BFE (read 'remote') Pennsylvania where BroadBand is not available in any form save satellite, which is no good for price and latency reasons (curse my MMO addiction!). My big question is: what is the -actual- current status of WiMAX technology? Different sites have me believing different things and I can't find an exact answer to the question 'When will I be able to buy a WiMAX router and cards so I can remotely receive broadband?' When will WiMAX (802.16) be solidly standardized, out, and affordable? Or is it already there?"

Reminds me of DSL

[ackthpt]

Back in the early days of DSL in the Bay Area (SFO/OAK/SJC) there was a guide in the now-defunct MicroTimes outlining about 40 vendors and what they offered. It was a bit exasperating trying to figure out which to buy into. Sounds like WiMAX is going to have a shaking out period, too.

It's coming, Just a little bit longer (months)

[Anonymous Coward]

Clearwire is rolling out ALOT of new sites in this coming year. They're up to about 15 right now and growing at a rate of something like 2 every 3 weeks. I think Seattle is on the schedule really soon. The tough part is getting the expensive licenses for airwaves.

But you can't beat the pricing for that kind of mobility in broadband.

Speakeasy has a WiMax setup on the Space Needle in Seattle, but the range only covers the north side of downtown. They are planning on rolling out more too, but I've seen less proof.
www.clearwire.com /Not a shill, but soon to be a CW customer when Seattle goes live.

Move to Seattle or Philadelphia

[WillAffleckUW]

or nearby if you want to get this kind of service - that or next to a major university (or state college/university).

you're more likely to get high-speed service over your power lines out in farm country, IMHO.

Re:Wi-Max

[MightyMartian]

The problem with 900mhz stuff nowadays is the huge amount of noise in adjacent bands, not to mention the crap being spewed from cordless phones and the like. The non-line-of-site benefits of 900mhz band are being undone. I remember some of our equipment having major interference problems because some paging tower's transmitter went on the fritz and started spewing like nuts, and the big guys just don't give a damn. 2.4ghz is getting nearly as bad, and the higher unlicensed bands will doubtless in turn also begin to suffer.

Re:butt fuck egypt?

[Alex P Keaton in da]

The Butt F%^K isn't anything to do with it. BFE is an old term that stood fof "Beyond F-ing Egypt." It meant really far away, as it does today. I am sure this will get modded offtopic, but BFE will be used a lot in replies to this story...
Now- do you know what RFD stands for, as in Mayberry?

Re:Wi-Max

[lowrydr310]

I was shocked to learn this past weekend that DSL is availble at my parents' house in BFE Pennsylvania. My father just signed up for Verizon's 768/384 DSL, which is cheaper than the dialup service he had!

Meanwhile, DSL is NOT available where I live in relatively Suburban NJ (not rural) approximately 20 miles outside New York City. My house was built in 1995 and my parents' house was built sometime before 1895, and I would have expected that I could get it first.

For now I'm stuck paying out the ears for Comcast's monopoly Cable internet. I can't complain about the speed or service, but DSL if available would be 1/4 the price. Verizon says "were constantly upgrading our network and expanding our coverage. We'll contact you when DSL is available in your area!"

Re:Nagging question about bandwidth

[WolfWithoutAClause]

I have a question which I haven't seen discussed when it comes to WiMAX. Is there enough radio frequency bandwidth to support more than a few dozen high-speed users per access point?

The bottom line with any wireless system is how well engineered it is.

The following techniques help a lot:

a) broadband suppliers give a 'contention ratio' somewhere between 20 and 50. In other words they assume you are only using it 1/20 to 1/50 of the time. So a single 2M radio link can handle 20-50 customers each with 2M and a 100M radio link can handle 1000-2500 people (in principle.)

b) directional antennas help a lot. So, if they stick up a mast with antennas pointing in different directions (adjacent antennas on different frequencies) then they'll get very little contention.

c) nodes that don't 'shout'; in other words if the nodes don't transmit at any more power than they absolutely need to; this minimises the distance that any interference is likely to occur at; permitting channel reuse.

d) add base stations, (particularly in conjunction with c) ) this mean that each base station can transmit and receive at lower power- this reduces the size of the coverage area, and you gain multiple times the users (since each node only uses up the bandwidth for a smaller distance).

e) use different channels (each channel has its own customers on)

f) node routing (in other words, instead of a customer sending a signal all the way to the base station, route it through another customer that is closer).

If you use all these techniques appropriately, the amount of bandwidth per user is constant, independent of the number of users, surprisingly.

I worked on an 802.16 project...

[Chabil Ha']

at the Idaho National Laboratory this last summer. They currently have a fully operational 802.16 network supporting their staff. I tell ya, there is nothing more cool than being miles and miles away from the tower and getting a full 54Mb signal in the middle of the desert!

Verizon is advertising WiMAX

[SwashbucklingCowboy]

availability in selected areas of the country. I've seen their ad on TV a number of times now. No idea if it actually works though...

Re:It's not just a matter of cards...

[Feyr]

im not sure what equipment you're looking at, but so far all i've seen if "high speed over short distance, crap speed over medium distance"

i have yet to see any equipment, pre-wimax or other, that boast 60 miles

right now we've got some motorala canopy, the docs says they do 10 miles with a reflector and 4 without (did anyway, they just updated them). in reality you're lucky to be doing 5 miles with a reflector, i'm sure the wimax crap will be the same (in the 5.7ghz band)

Re:WiMax hype

[Anonymous Coward]

Then why are the major silicon companies building WiMAX chipsets to go in low end routers (SOHO) and notebook computers.

      WiMAX has many uses. Backhaul is one. CPE and notebooks are other uses.

      Check the products that are being offered before you state that it is a backhaul only technology.

(Disclosure: I work at one of the major silicon companies on WiMAX.)

Re:Wi-Max

[walt-sjc]

Not if his telco is Verizon.

Verizone has declared DSL dead. It's Fios now... Basically, nobody (or near enough to nobody for the sake of this conversation) is doing "extended reach" DSL or adding new DSLAMS. If you can get DSL now, great. If not, don't hold your breath. You options are Fios sometime in the next 10 - 20 years or WiMAX in the next 5.

One other option may be to find someone else who CAN get DSL and has line of sight to your house. Do a WiFi bridge. Offer them "free" internet for the use of their house / business. Technically this may violate AUP, but screw em.