Migs Mobile Network

Hi dear readers, here’s my attempt to give you information about Wimax,.

What is Wimax and how does WImax works?

Here we go.

Wimax stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access – a wireless digital communication system intended to provide wireless data access within a larger area – like a whole city or metropolis.

It is based on the IEEE 802.16 standard, which is also called WirelessMAN. The name WiMAX was created by the WiMAX Forum, which was formed in June 2001 to promote conformance and interoperability of the standard. – Wikipedia

You know wi-fi right? Wi-Fi enables wireless access to a small area. Like an Internet Cafe or a whole house or an area 100 to 300 feet. With Wimax, you don’t need to access your neighbors wifi (you wont need to be a thief anymore) coz you’ll have your own share. Wimax can provide access of up to 30 miles (for those with base stations) and 3-10 miles for mobile stations.

In summary Wimax is:

• Faster connection
• Covers a larger area
• Enables more users to connect
• and will be more reliable

For Wimax to work on providing access to a larger area, it should link to ther wimax stations (like cellphone towers) which is referred to as backhaul.

What do you need to have access Wimax?

At home you need a wimax receiver unit to be able to access wimax in your area. Two ways to accomplish this, either you have an antenae (will provide a lower frequency range) or a dish (like a satellite dish) that points directly to the base stations (better and higher frequency).

With laptops, you’ll need either an internal or external receiver. There are now wimax PC Dongles available in the market. But they are still quite expensive. In mobile phones, you will also need a wimax capable mobile phone with built-in wimax signal receiver.

How much will Wimax cost?

Now that’s a difficult question to answer.

You see, if telcos will not shoulder the cost of building a tower, then will the Government do it? I think that was part of the plan with the infamous National Broadband Network Issue. Unfortunately, those greeeeeeeeeedy politicians wanted more kickbacks than the usual.

Davao CIty is known as Wi-Fi city (wi-fi almost everywhere) and other cities such as Baguio and Cagayan de Oro are on the move to replicate Davao’s success with regards to providing wi-fi for everyone. It was the business owners who shouldered the costs and offered free wi-fi access to its patrons.

Will businesses pay for the cost to make Wimax a reality? I think they will – initially. Then they’ll just pass on the expenses to their customers.

They can have wimax plans such as P500 to P1,000 per month or access on demand like the 3G plans where customers may pay from P20 per hour of use.

The more users, the cheaper it should be.. But the supply and demand factor should also be considered. Less supply (for now – less towers) and more demand may mean higher costs. But eventually, like 3G and Wi-Fi, consumers may see free wimax access.

But of course we will need to buy the equipment (receivers) and upgrade our mobile phones to be wimax capable. That’s a different story.

So when will Wimax be available?

We have 4 known and active telcos here in the Philippines: Globe, Smart, Sun/Digitel/ and Cure.

Cure will focus on 3G. It will become cheaper once wimax starts to be operational. Sun/Digitel is looking at Wimax and i think will be Globe’s main competitor (or maybe partner?) for this service. Smart said they’re not yet eyeing on Wimax.

Based from new reports, It looks like Globe will be the first to roll out Wimax. They have been doing series of tests since 2005.

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has already assigned frequencies for the use of Wimax.

With all the latest news about Wimax, i think we pinoys will be seeing this great service at the last quarter of this year and partial roll out by first half or 2009.

So what else do you need to know?

Well.. for now, i think that will be all… once we see wimax in action then lets talk about data security.. which i think is a BIG issue.

Pic of How wimax works from source