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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

E is for 802.16e

802.16e is the mobile flavour of the 802.16 family of WiMax wireless standards (see W is for WiMax) and was ratified by the IEEE at the end of 2005.

LTE - the likely 4G evolution path of cellular technologies - and mobile WiMax are often discussed as competing techs - in a 'there can be only one winner' vein.

However, some analysts believe the two techs could both end up being part of a 4G future - a possibility made more likely by the International Telecommunication Union's 2007 decision to include WiMax in the IMT-2000 set of standards, alongside cellular technologies.

WiMax arguably has a head-start over LTE in the short-term - the technology has been used in real-world rollouts, unlike LTE. However, the mobile industry seems to be converging behind LTE and analysts predict it will eventually dominate.

Aside from mobile operators' seeming fondness for LTE, barriers to rolling out WiMax include spectrum availability (see S is for Spectrum) and chipset adoption.

However 802.16e is likely to remain in use in certain regions where large-scale cellular investment is unattractive. Tech lobby group the WiMax Forum claims WiMax's open standards-based approach can mean networks are cheaper to build than cellular 3G/4G equivalents - which could give it a leg up in developing nations and/or rural regions where investment budgets are limited.