Skip to main content

WiMAX to Benefit Broadband Disenfranchised

According to Kagan Research, U.S. households that have lacked broadband availability comprise a last frontier in telecom, but are now being corralled. Terrestrial wireless WiMAX network installations are scheduled to start next year.

"Because of the costs to deploy DSL and cable modem service, the big carriers have mostly focused on densely populated areas, but that's overlooking the 5,000 towns with fewer than 70,000 people in the U.S.," says Kelley Dunne, CEO of Digital Bridge Communications, which provides WiMAX broadband services and support services to other WiMAX providers. It's estimated that over 14 million U.S. households lack affordable broadband connectivity and, Dunne adds, millions more are poorly served.

Some of those towns may be nominally serviced by some broadband service. But usually coverage is patchy, prices high and capabilities limited, says Dunne, who apparently witnessed these issues while he was an executive with Verizon. WiMAX standardization is lowering equipment costs and first-wave deployments overseas prove WiMAX service is viable, notes Dunne.

Other WiMAX advantages are equipment that consumers can quickly self-install -- "in some cases under two minutes," says Dunne -- and robust service. However, WiMAX faces challenges as well. The WiMAX Forum consortium set 3.5 GHz as a 'standard frequency' globally -- well everywhere, except here in the U.S. where it will be a non-standard frequency.

That frequency band is not available because it's occupied by U.S. government services. As a wireless medium, WiMAX also won't deliver fast speeds unless large amounts of spectrum are available. Dunne's company is helping providers deliver downloads at 1.5, 3 and 5 Mbps. That's comparable to DSL, but short of cable modems and fiber-optic networks, and won't support TV-like video quality.

Popular posts from this blog

How WLAN Transforms Industrial Automation

The industrial sector is on the eve of a wireless transformation, driven by an urgent demand for greater network capacity, reliability, and deterministic performance. Historically, manufacturers and mission-critical operations have relied on wired networks — favoring their predictability — because spectrum congestion in legacy 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands limited confidence in wireless for operational technology (OT) environments. However, with the introduction and rapid adoption of the 6GHz spectrum, compounded by significant advances in Wi-Fi standards, industrial facilities are now poised to embrace wireless LANs as the backbone for automation and digital innovation. Industrial WLAN Market Development Recent research from ABI Research forecasts that over 70 percent of industrial-grade wireless LAN access points (WLAN APs) shipped in 2030 will support the 6GHz band. This is a leap from 2 percent in 2023, highlighting a rapid and profound technological shift. The market for ruggedized indust...