Folks over at WiFi Blog really need to pay attention. There is no ratified standard called WiMAX at present. I repeat, there is no damn thing called WiMAX in existence except for spin from a certain chip company. Repeat… no WiMAX…. Exhale Om Exhale ….
say OOoooommmmmm …
Nah…. that is just too much peace for crazy man like me
No, there are no WiMAX Certified systems. But it is not correct to say “there is no WiMAX”. WiMAX Forum is the industry certification and promotional group based on 802.16 standards. A few companies that have been working on development of the IEEE standards and technologies have also been in development of carrier class systems to meet these standards for several years. And some now have systems they are willing to assure customers can be upgraded to meet certification requirements. For all practical purposes there are WiMAX systems on the market.
But that doesn’t mean that WiMAX is ‘ready for prime time’. WiMAX will roll out in stages and most users won’t have access to WiMAX for two years or more. The commodity ICs that enable production of low cost CPEs and portable devices will need to become available first.
I’m a bit confused by this “no WiMAX” comment as well. WiMAX is a trade name that refers to practically any 802.16 implementation, which would include 16d (802.16-2004) and 16e.
I agree that 16e is far from standard and overhyped,l but the ink is dry on 802.16-2004. And the “pre” gear we’re seeing now isn’t going to be that much different from the gear we’ll see in mid-2005 for fixed deployments.
I can hear the INTEL “”HIT SQUAD”” working on a plan to ””Take that OM dude OUT”’
ggggggggggggggggggggoing against the gggggggggggrain in corporate is suicidal………ESPECIALLY INTEL!
Skibare
I love WiMAX and CANNOT wait for AOL to roll out its PARTNER in WalMART roofs!!! oooooooooops, let the Wimax cat out of the bag!
Well when WiMAX Forum ratifies and makes products available, then we call the equipment “WiMAX” equipment. How difficult is it to say, “Fixed Wireless” or pre-WIMAX. I think this is a whole marketing crap which makes me want to throw-up…
Don’t we just love to hate the hype?
The fact is that most people, including many industry ‘experts’ were totally ignorant of what was going on in the standards groups and new fields of technology such as WOFDM/OFDMA and MIMO-AAS until someone bonked them over their heads with “hype”. It is hype because it pre-stages product availability, not so much because there is anything misplaced about the promise of the technological road map.
A certain degree of hype is good. Yes we all get sick of it, particularly when so many technical writers know only enough to be dangerous and often take marketing statements from competitive companies as gospel. But hype is a much needed part of “Marketing 101” – creating initial awareness and market acceptance for something new.
Think of every major ‘next big thing’ that has ever come along… every one of them was hyped. “The year of the network” was announced for about four years before networking had as big of an impact as supposed. The fact is that people make a living designing, writing about, consulting, selling, giving seminars, writing books, and generally ‘hyping’ new things. And others like to bitch about it!