WiMAX trashed – and praised – in Australian trials

by Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Tuesday, 25 March 2008

Page 1 of 2 ! Two WiMAX operators in Australia are telling very different stories of their experiences at a WiMAX conference underway in Bangkok, according to an online report. According to the Australian edition of Communications Day , a WiMAX conference in Bangkok has heard two wildly differing reports on the effectiveness of WiMAX networking technology. The report notes that mobile WiMAX operator Buzz Broadband, located in Hervey Bay, and operator of the first Australian WiMAX network, says the technology is a “disaster” that has “failed miserably”. Update 2: Please see the new follow up article, WiMIN or WiMAX: Stacks of WiMAX facts? for additional information. Update: It would appear, according to online reports (and commenters to this article) that initial reports Buzz Broadband were using a 'Mobile WiMAX' solution are incorrect, with Airspan (the provider of WiMAX equipment) suggesting Buzz Broadband's WiMAX implementation was woefully inadequate due to decisions aimed at cutting costs, rather than maximising network quality for their customers. A commenter has published Airspan's press release on page 2 of this article in the comments section. The original story continues below: Buzz Broadband CEO Garth Freeman is quoted as saying that “non-line of sight performance was “non-existent” beyond just 2 kilometres from the base station, indoor performance decayed at just 400m and that latency rates reached as high as 1000 milliseconds”, with poor VoIP performance, stunning the assembled conference attendees. CommsDay says that 12 months ago, Freeman was at the same conference, where he praised WiMAX technology and held out great hope for Buzz Broadband’s trials, although a year later a lot of data can be captured and a technology’s true reliability and effectiveness could be ascertained. Freeman had plenty more to say, which you can read in CommsDay’s report, although little of it was flattering to WiMAX, with Freeman advising he was investigating other wireless technologies instead. CONTINUED page 2 << First page <   1 2 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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