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The A to Z of wireless
Updated: Everything you need to know from A to Zigbee, and plenty in between...

By Natasha Lomas

Published: Tuesday 11 August 2009

W is for WiMax

WiMax is a long-range wireless broadband standard, often compared to wi-fi on steroids.

Unlike wi-fi, WiMax uses licensed spectrum but, also unlike its wireless cousin, works over distances of many miles, rather than just within rooms in a building. It has a maximum range of around 30 miles and is typically used to provide connectivity to metropolitan areas.

WiMax offers a last-mile alternative to fixed-line broadband - for instance it can be deployed to bring broadband services to rural 'notspots' unserved by fixed-line infrastructure, typically where laying copper or fibre would be seen as too costly.

WiMax can also be used to provide backhaul for wireless base stations - be they cellular, wi-fi or mobile WiMax.

Various WiMax networks are up and running globally - in the UK, for example, WiMax company Freedom4 has networks in Manchester, Milton Keynes and Warwick running on the 3.6GHz spectrum band.

Mobile WiMax has been mooted as a rival carrier technology to the next-gen evolution of cellular networks (aka 4G or LTE). For mobile WiMax, the standard is 802.16e: a version of WiMax that supports mobility and is theoretically capable of symmetrical speeds up to 70Mbps - see E is for 802.16e.