WiMAX enables a true quadruple play of services. WiMax is a "mobile" network. Take it with you wherever you go!

Next Generation Technology: New Standard for an Open Mobile Broadband Networks

Relative to other broadband technologies, WiMAX provides revolutionary advantages in mobility, open standards, and open access. WiMAX is the only technology on the market today that enables a true quadruple play of services – broadband Internet access, landline telephone bypass, cell phone/mobile data bypass, and cable/satellite television bypass.

The ability to access the Internet while traveling 60 miles per hour with seamless handoffs from one base station to the next is the technology marvel of our time. Having Internet access makes the down time on public transportation, for example, into productive time.

Open standards give the subscriber a wide range of WiMAX device choices from a variety of manufacturers.

WiMAX = Open Standards

The WiMAX is an industry standard that was promulgated by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), referred to as “802.16e.” (IEEE also developed the Wi-Fi standard.) WiMAX is an IP-based broadband wireless access technology developed from the ground up to provide high-speed data and voice capabilities combined with advanced interactivity, ubiquitous mobility, and exceptional cost-effectiveness.

The industry group WiMAX Forum® actively promotes interoperability of diverse subscriber devices and base stations, thus driving a vibrant ecosystem of devices, applications, and services. Unlike the traditional cell phone market where proprietary technologies encouraged closed networks (“walled gardens”), WiMAX drives innovation via open standards.

WiMAX = Open Access

The WiMAX distributed architecture is a simpler, more powerful alternative to traditional hierarchical bandwidth challenged cellular networks based on complex layers of control. The table above illustrates a comparison of WiMAX and other wireless solutions.WiMAX offers a flat, all Internet Protocol network architecture.

Unlike some wireless service providers, who limit access to some online services (VoIP on cellular data networks, for example), mobile WiMAX enables all of the Internet’s applications (voice, video, music, gaming) all of the time. "Clear" mobile WiMAX from Clearwire (depicted below) is a platform that supports multiple devices on a single customer account (4G), instead of one account for each device (3G).

Mobile WiMAX unifies all services and devices on a single Internet network. Voice is carried over an Internet platform ("VoIP"). 3G requires a cellular phone network for voice and a separate network for Internet access. Credit: Clearwire

WiMAX verses Long Term Evolution

Long Term Evolution (LTE) is a mobile wireless broadband technology that is currently being promoted as an alternative to WiMAX by major cellular telephone providers, including Verizon and AT&T. LTE is still in the developmental stages and will not be deployed until the 2012 - 2015 time frame.

If LTE service providers want to compete with WiMAX operators and provide a comparable immersive broadband experience, they will have to spend billions of dollars to upgrade their existing cell phone-based infrastructure by enabling Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity and increasing bandwidth (capacity).

All LTE voice traffic will be carried as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), not as a cell phone signal. LTE is not accepted as a solution for community broadband networks in the way that WiMAX is. WiMAX is open and it is ready for immediate deployment.