WiMax 2 standard ready for approval, goal of 100 Mbps downlink speeds
While LTE starts rolling out from major U.S. carriers in 2011, the WiMax Forum is hoping to have the so-called WiMax 2 standard up and ready to go by the start of 2012.
Declan Byrne, the marketing director for the WiMax Forum industry group, says the WiMax 2 standard, formally known as 802.16m, will be finalized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) this November, with an eye toward certifying devices based on the standard throughout 2011. From there, he expects ISPs to start deploying the standard commercially throughout 2012, when U.S. carriers such as AT&T and T-Mobile will just be starting to offer LTE services nationwide.
802.16m will be significantly faster than its predecessor. WiMAX Forum Vice President Mohammad Shakouri has said the goal is for the new WiMAX standard to deliver average downlink speeds of more than 100Mbps to users. In contrast, Sprint's initial Xohm WiMax offering, which debuted commercially in 2008, delivered downlink speeds ranging between 3.7M to 5Mbps. But while 802.16m will give WiMax a major speed boost, don't expect it to propagate any further than the current WiMax technology that covers around 31 square miles per access point.
