WiFi? How about WiMax?

amorph

Hiawatha Bray at the Boston Globe weighs in [attr: MacSurfer].



Basically, we're looking at 5-6 Mb/sec at a 2-4 mile range if the antennae aren't pointing at each other, 10 miles if they are. And this time, wireless broadband is organized around IEEE standards.



It's $500/month right now, but Intel has announced an intention to build WiMax into Centrino, which will bring the technology down to commodity prices.



Once the cost comes down, this will get around the problems with wiring dense urban areas, and help with sprawl and with older neighborhoods. It's not quite powerful enough to work for rural customers, but I'm sure some sort of relay system could get put in place (rural broadband customers are already using amplifiers and directional antennae to share broadband accounts), if people went to the extra trouble of aiming the antennae.



Imagine that: Wireless cable within a four mile radius of a broadcast tower. 8)

akumulator

And tumors the size of beachballs...... hopefully all this bombardment is not so bad. \

ghost_user_name

When I first read about this, I was not too sure about the idea, I mean they did want to make the access points in weather ballons. Now, however it sounds exicting, really exicting. The future is bright for this new (well old really but new now that we are adopting it) tech. I think it will work in nicely with my master vision of the future. (we all have one, don't lie)

xmoger

Numbers:

Area of 3 mile radius service area

28.2 sq mi



Pop. density of New York (14 years ago)

23,000 / sq mi



Number of potential customers for 1 node

648,600



Total Bandwith @ 5Mbit each

3,243 Gbits/sec



or 60,055 times faster than 802.11a/g



Even if 1% of the population subscribes thats a 32 Gbit antenna. I'll bet mass producing NICs doesn't lower the cost of those much.



It'll be a few years before it can compete with my $25 3Mbit connection.