Wimax's passage to Bangkok

The Wimax World Asia event took place in Bangkok last week. Emerging markets were recurring theme, with Wimax touted as a way to bridge the digital divide. Speakers from Tata Communications (India), PacketOne, REDtone (both of Malaysia) and Telkom (Indonesia) were on hand to share their experiences and plans for rolling out Wimax.

Another recurring theme was the importance of a voice component to any Wimax rollout. Sunil Kumar, marketing director for Beceem Communications, told Wireless Asia that low-ARPU markets in particular will need voice ARPUs as well as data to make money. Kevin Suitor, VP for marketing and business development for Redline Communications, put it even more strongly: "If you were a Wimax operator and you didn't embrace a double play of voice and data, odds are you don't exist now."

Yet another hot topic: mobile internet devices (MIDs), which tackle the device issue for wireless broadband by proposing devices that bridge the form-factor and performance gaps between handsets and laptops. Chunghwa Telecom senior VP Dr Minsky Luo touted his company's mTube device, which supports Wi-Fi and Wimax, while Karl Weaver, president of Newport Technologies, said that neither the handset nor popular devices like PNDs were the end-all form factor for mobile broadband, but added the evolution of form factors could well vary from market to market based on local needs and cultural expectations.

It wasn't all gravy for Wimax proponents, however - Garth Freeman, CEO of Australia's Buzz Broadband, delivered a scathing condemnation of mobile Wimax, which Buzz deployed for its service in Hervey Bay. In a presentation, Freeman blasted mobile Wimax on issues ranging from non-line of sight past two kilometers to poor latency and indoor coverage, and added the company had already abandoned Wimax completely in favor of a mix of technologies, including Wireless DOCSIS, Wi-Fi and TD-CDMA.

Freeman didn't make clear whether the fault lay in the Wimax standard overall, the specific products (supplied by AirSpan), the types of services offered or the service area's topology. Maurie Dobbin - managing director of TeleResources Engineering Australia, who also moderated the session in which Freeman spoke - commented that any operator deploying any technology "need to do due diligence on vendors' claims, talk to people without the vendor present and find out what their real-world experience is".

In other Wimax news for the week, Motorola said it has successfully completed the first mobile Wimax trial in Thailand after teaming up with local firm United Information Highway, while Redline announced that Cambodia's CityLink is deploying a Wimax network in multiple cities using its Wimax gear.

Wi-Fi was also in the spotlight during the week, though not necessarily in a positive way. Staccato Communications, a member of the WiMedia Alliance, published an article claiming that using Wi-Fi instead of UWB to boost the data transfer speed for Bluetooth - which the Bluetooth SIG announced plans to pursue last month - would cause interference to nearby Wimax and cellular devices.

Meanwhile, Intel has reportedly found a way to stretch a Wi-Fi signal from 100 meters to 60 miles.