Opinionated comments on mobile phone industry news
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All entries are written by Anders Borg, CEO and Consultant of Abiro, that has a long experience in strategic planning, developing embedded and Java software, usability aspects, and the mobile phone industry in general. You can also read the latest Mobile News entries on your phone via wap.abiro.com, and we provide many News Feeds from popular news services. For advertising and contribution queries, please use the feedback form. News feed (local) FeedBurner Feed
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Wednesday, October 25, 2006
WiMAX vs Wi-Fi, not (just) because it's better
Update: I contacted Ephraim and got this feedback regarding whether it's actually possible or allowed to set up high power Wi-Fi towers: "I believe that the FCC limits the range of Wi-Fi by putting a limit on the strength of the antenna signal. So I believe you could not put up a high power Wi-Fi on a tower."
Ephraim Schwartz at InfoWorld argues that a major reason operators go for WiMAX is that it's licensed and hence can't be acquired by just "anybody".
Wi-Fi on the other hand is using unlicensed frequency bands. Maybe this is a signal to new wireless and data-focused operators to set up high power Wi-Fi towers covering towns or at least campuses (university, corporate or otherwise). Especially as more and more phones have integrated Wi-Fi and voice can be handled via VoIP.
How Wi-Fi behaves in a setting where there might be a thousand connected users per tower I don't know. WiMAX might have improvemements in this area.
As Wi-Fi (or rather sub-standards of IEEE 802.11) is likely to evolve faster than WiMAX, due to the pressure from inhouse corporate and home use, it's also possible performance over Wi-FI will be better over time than for WiMAX.
Behind the push for WiMAX | InfoWorld | Column | 2006-10-24 | By Ephraim Schwartz: "Behind the push for WiMAX"
Ephraim Schwartz at InfoWorld argues that a major reason operators go for WiMAX is that it's licensed and hence can't be acquired by just "anybody".
Wi-Fi on the other hand is using unlicensed frequency bands. Maybe this is a signal to new wireless and data-focused operators to set up high power Wi-Fi towers covering towns or at least campuses (university, corporate or otherwise). Especially as more and more phones have integrated Wi-Fi and voice can be handled via VoIP.
How Wi-Fi behaves in a setting where there might be a thousand connected users per tower I don't know. WiMAX might have improvemements in this area.
As Wi-Fi (or rather sub-standards of IEEE 802.11) is likely to evolve faster than WiMAX, due to the pressure from inhouse corporate and home use, it's also possible performance over Wi-FI will be better over time than for WiMAX.
Behind the push for WiMAX | InfoWorld | Column | 2006-10-24 | By Ephraim Schwartz: "Behind the push for WiMAX"
