Schools give WiMax and wi-fi top marks

Schools are turning to wireless networks - especially WiMax - as a more cost effective way of providing internet access to more locations.

As a result, global spend on mobile and wireless by education authorities will rise from $827m last year to a healthy $6.5bn by 2010, according to predictions from Juniper Research.

This figure includes the spending on handheld and portable wireless devices, hardware, software and services.

The research house said independent wireless networks capable of interoperating with 2G and 3G systems are "central to the mobile future for education".

Jupiter said wi-fi has been widely used for the past four years by major educational institutions for wireless broadband campus networks, and that the greater power of WiMax will make it attractive as well.

The company said: "The much greater range and higher data-transfer speeds of WiMax/802.16 are driving its emergence as a wide-area broadband infrastructure solution for educational networks."

The author of the Jupiter report Dr Douglas Houston said operators including AT&T and BT have been testing WiMax to see how effective it is at extending services into remote areas, and said the technology will have a "wide market impact" over the next five years.

He said in a statement: "The standard's ability to provide wireless broadband backbones is making it of considerable interest for government and education in developing countries."

Spending on mobile and wireless software will reach $987m in 2010, while hardware spending will reach $825m, according to Jupiter.

Portable and handheld devices will form the largest component of overall expenditure on mobile and wireless systems in education - sales of more than 12 million units will generate revenues of $2.756bn by 2010, the research company estimates.