New Year, New Tech

Written on January 2, 2009 by Katherine W. Prawl

As we prepare for the second phase of our annual southern migration, I was considering our internet connectivity during our travels. Last night when I was trying to put on an event at the ISM, I kept crashing because the cable here has a problem with frequent drops. That’s one problem, but mostly while we’re on the road just getting connected in the first place is our worst problem. A year-end technology roundup on NPR reminded me of a technology that’s been promised by the wireless industry for years, but hasn’t seen the light of day till now: WiMax. Well, maybe it has. I didn’t know much about it, so I did a bit of research.

First I should define WiMax. It is the abbreviation for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access. Similar to WiFi, the two technologies are implementations of different standards. WiFi is described in the IEEE 802.11x family of standards, while the WiMax definition includes IEEE 802.16 as well as several other standards. Obviously, the two are related, both falling into the IEEE 802 book, but my most burning question is how interoperable are they? Will a device such as a laptop or smartphone that has WiFi capability be able to seamlessly connect to a WiMax transmitter, or do we have to go through yet another iteration of hardware upgrades to take advantage of it? In particular, should I wait to upgrade my first generation iPhone to see if the new 3G version is WiMax-capable, or should I wait for iPhone 3.0?

So far the answers are elusive. I found an article that purports to explain WiMax “to da max”, but it didn’t tell me explicitly. There was one sentence that hinted around about it, though.

“You could even combine WiFi with WiMAX by having the router send the data to the computers via WiFi.” [Brain, Marshall, and Ed Grabianowski. "How WiMAX Works." 02 December 2004. HowStuffWorks.com.]

So, existing WiFi enabled hardware probably will not be able to connect to WiMax directly, but will require a router to translate the signals from WiMax to WiFi and vice versa. And since Sprint is the major cellphone carrier involved in WiMax development, not AT&T, it is unlikely that our iPhones will be WiMax capable anytime soon.

I’ll keep following this technology as it develops. Several manufacturers promise new hardware in 2009, and Motorola actually introduced a USB WiMax adapter for laptops last September, and promised to ship products in 4Q 2008. Intel has an integrated WiFi/WiMax adapter for computers based on their new Centrino chip. This new year may be the base of the hockey stick for WiMax.

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Posted in smartphones, WiFi, WiMax, wireless