WiMax not up to billing

WiMax promises a lot - super-fast wireless broadband access without an external modem and national and international roaming.

But will the promise be delivered?

Earlier this year Nokia joined Intel in throwing its considerable weight behind WiMax, but last week a senior Nokia executive conceded the technology had been overhyped.

"WiMax is hype at the moment and it's pretty bad hype," said Markku Hollström, Nokia's WiMax business programme head, according to news website silicon.com.

"From our point of view, it's a great technology, but not like it has been hyped," he said.

Phone giant Nokia still expects big things of the technology and is predicting even cheap cellphones will be WiMax-capable by 2011.

"We see broadband wireless technology doing the same for broadband data as GSM did for voice," Hollström said.

"Cellular networks haven't taken off [for data] because cellular networks currently suck. Badly. It's our fault - we've done it badly."

While an industry standard for WiMax is still being thrashed out - and is probably at least three to six months away - Intel plans to begin building WiMax receiving chips into laptops from late next year.

The company sees WiMax as a complementary communication technology to 3G mobile.

WiMax is short for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access and Intel has described the technology as "wi-fi on steroids".

Where wi-fi wireless transmitters have a range of only a few hundred metres, WiMax has a range of up to 50km and offers much faster connections.

The "interoperability" factor means net surfers will be able to "roam" between service providers in different cities and even internationally, something not possible with existing wireless broadband.

In New Zealand, TelstraClear, Vodafone, BCL and Compass Communications own management rights to the 3.5-gigahertz microwave frequency spectrum suitable for WiMax.

Telecom is about to join the club, subject to Commerce Commission approval for its purchase of frequency from Counties Power.

The Government is working through an auction-based sale of additional 3.5GHz frequency, carved up for regional use.

David Cunliffe, Associate Communications Minister at the time, said in September last year that the additional regional spectrum was being made available "to parties wishing to provide wireless broadband services in specific areas, who may not have had the incentives or resources to acquire nationwide rights".