Intel to Release WiMax Chip

david writes "According to CNET News, Intel plans to release their first WiMax chip on Monday. 'The world's largest chipmaker sees in WiMax a potential profit source that it hopes will become as popular as its shorter-range cousin, Wi-Fi. Intel also believes it will stimulate computer sales in emerging markets where high-speed Internet access is unavailable or prohibitively expensive.'"

You know who is interested in this?

[badboy_tw2002]

Wal-mart. 7-11. Citgo. McDonalds. Anyone with a mass franchise presence suddenly has the potential to power an ISP with a 20 mile range by slapping a $500 antenna on top of their stores. Pay as you go validation at the checkout counter and you're off and running. If Exxon put this at every one of their stations they could supply internet to travelers to pretty much everyone within range of an interstate. That's a lot of people.

Re:Does WiMax do adhoc networking?

[JustAnotherBob]

As what the atricle says:
"Unlike Wi-Fi, whose ad hoc networks can be set up by anyone to connect a single house or office, WiMax is engineered to cover an entire city via base stations dispersed around a metropolitan area. So-called client devices, akin to a cable or DSL modem and built with a WiMax chip like Intel's, then pick the signal up. When connected to a PC, the signal becomes a high-speed wireless connection. "

buzz on the street is HSPDA neither Max nor Bro

[Anonymous Coward]

I think buzz on the street is HSPDA.
Neither wimax nor wibro.
HSPDA is triple threats (Voice,DATA,DMB all in one)
I am not sure how us is planning for but it looks like eurpose and asia is ready to jump on HSPDA.

WiMin wiped out

[tkarr]

No more trying to angle my laptop in weird directions just to get a single bar of signal in class! I wonder if they're going to charge as much for this new service as Cable internet. Wireless makes a lot of sense; we wouldn't have to string cables throughout houses or apartments. Wireless today can be tricky since passing through zones can cause flakey connections. If the zone is as large as a city... well that problem isn't so bad. In fact, it would be awesome if there could be nationwide coverage, and we could use wireless on our laptops in our cars!

Re:You know who is interested in this?

[F13]

You mean like Cringely outlined [pbs.org] back in November.

Re:So to stimulate sales

[tkarr]

Part of the lack of access is due to the fact that people live in areas that have no existing wiring, which is expensive to install. They don't want to install one wire to one house in a whole neighborhood or small town, unless they can guarantee more clients. If there was a fast, reliable, wireless internet connection, those places could get access.

All popular technology tends to start out proprietary and expensive. Remember when blank DVDs were too expensive for the common person to buy? Now they're a dollar or so apiece! Maybe this technology will catch on too... I guess time and society will tell.

Re:Services?

[mattspammail]

MAN is not what you're looking for. A MAN is a Metropolitan Area Network, but its purpose is to connect a few separate LAN's that serve a similar set of clients. Think of the government buildings in your area. They may have 5 or 10 buildings, each with separate LAN's. Then think of connecting those 5 or 10 LAN's for the purpose of high speed sharing between them. The example I always think of (don't ask me why) is the diamond wholesalers in Houston. There are a whole bunch of diamond wholesalers in a couple of areas. They all participate in a centralized data initiative (or at least that's what I was told). They have a MAN connecting their LAN's.

Solar Interference?

[Bad D.N.A.]

We track solar events in the GHz frequency range all of the time

http://sunbase.nict.go.jp/solar/denpa/index.html

or

http://www.ips.gov.au/Main.php?CatID=5

Lots more can be found at

http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/stp/SOLAR/IAUWGdoc.html #R ADIO

Wont these events cause interference? Or is the intensity from the solar events just too low?

Great WiMax overview on DailyWireless.org

[Darth Cider]

A must-read overview [dailywireless.org] of WiMax in its present state appears on DailyWireless.org, with a link to Intel's white paper, the state of competition, data on cost and performance, spectrum requirements, the whole ball of Wax.