Mobile > WiMaxEssentials

WiMAX, a new broadband wireless access technology, is expected to gather strong momentum in the Asia Pacific region with WiMAX services revenues estimated to grow from US$58 million in 2007 to $5.46 billion by 2012, according to the latest report by Springboard Research, an IT research company. This translates to a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 148 percent for the period.

Adoption of Sprint Nextel's Xohm WiMax service has been better than expected since it launched in Baltimore on Sept. 29, and the carrier is confident it will be able to fund the rest of its national network rollout despite the current economic crisis, Sprint executives said Wednesday.

Intel's next-generation WiMax module, called Evans Peak, is on display at this week's Ceatec exhibition in Chiba, Japan. Due to hit the market as part of the Moorestown chip platform next year, Evans Peak will support more WiMax profiles than Intel's current chipset and add support for Bluetooth and GPS.

A new Frost & Sullivan report is predicting WiMax will remain a limited and niche technology in Australia.

A long-term battle is brewing between two emerging high-speed wireless technologies, WiMax and Long Term Evolution (LTE). Each would more than quadruple existing wireless wide-area access speeds for users.

Sprint Nextel has signed on several companies to help deliver location-based services for its impending WiMAX launch.

In traditional cellular networks, the operator retains primary control over the devices operating on its network, with most devices being directly supplied to the subscriber through the operator's retail stores or partners, and pre-provisioned with the operator's software or SIM card.

The WiMax Forum has announced the first certified products for Mobile WiMax, but it won't help operators in Europe and the US.

Nokia is showing off a new iteration of a WiMax version of its Internet tablet at the CTIA conference in Las Vegas.

More than one-third of the ultramobile PCs coming later this year on Intel's Atom Centrino platform will offer a combination of WiMax and Wi-Fi, the head of the company's Ultra Mobility Group said Tuesday.

Qualcomm's Gobi, an embedded laptop module allowing for wide-area wireless connectivity, is poised to upset the apple cart, offering alternatives to Wi-Fi and even emerging WiMax.