WiMax: The saviour of rural broadband?

Officially known as IEEE 802.16, WiMax could be the broadband story of 2004, thanks to backing from industry heavyweights like Intel, Nokia and Alcatel. Analysts expect it to account for anywhere from 10 percent to 50 percent of the wireless market within ten years -- and products haven't even shipped yet.

While Wi-Fi hot spots provide wireless Internet access over distances of up to 100 feet, Wi-Max networks cover distances up to 30 miles. This means it has the potential to provide broadband access in rural areas that are too far from exchanges to provide wired or Wi-Fi access.

Distances up to 30 miles
"The biggest potential market for WiMax is residential users and small businesses," says Richard Dineen, a research director with Ovum. "In Europe, there are plenty of areas where people live too far from an exchange to get broadband, or the terrain is too hilly to lay cables. In that situation, WiMax does something that DSL can't."

WiMax is also likely to be used in places like campus sites, says Jeff Orr, product marketing manager at wireless hardware vendor Proxim. "There could be a company's headquarters, its manufacturing plant and a few remote locations all within close proximity to one another," he says. "To use a wired fibre-optic solution to network all of these buildings together would be an extremely expensive proposition. WiMax could offer a better total cost of ownership than a wired solution because recurring monthly costs of multiple T-1 and E-1s could be avoided and would come at a much lower cost than trenching."