PALO ALTO, Calif. — Intel’s vision of an always-connected planet is
coming up against finite wireless spectrum, and enterprise had better hope
it breaks through or risk spending ten times as much for WiMAX.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip-making giant is
helping the industry find a suitable home for wireless Metro Area Networks,
which use the IEEE 802.16 or WiMAX standard. The goal is to use the
technology as a last-mile alternative for broadband connections to
enterprise and consumer markets.
There is a burning need for a high-speed transmission that covers a wider
area than 802.11 Wi-Fi. Most of the copper in the world was installed in the
late 1940s, followed by fiber optic connections in the 1970s.
The next phase, according to Sean Maloney, executive vice president of
Intel’s Communications group, is the use of WiMAX in both urban and rural
areas. While the company is trying not to hype it as much as it did
Wi-Fi, Intel is very committed to seeing the standard play through.
“It’s slightly chaotic, because it differs from country to country to
country,” Maloney said during a press and analyst briefing here. “Four years
ago, there was a similar battle over Wi-Fi and, as you know, spectrum can get
very political. But if you ask me if WiMAX is going to replace Wi-Fi, the
reality is that all of these networks [read Wi-Fi, WiMAX, WCDMA, and 3G]
will overlap.”
Maloney said Intel has been lobbying the Federal Communications
Commission and its Chinese and U.K. counterparts to allow the wireless
industry access to the 700MHz frequencies. That part of the spectrum is
currently used for UHF television stations that will eventually vacate the
space as part of a government-induced transition to digital.
Right now, there are as many as three frequency bands that WiMAX can tap
into, including 700 MHz, 2.5MHz and 3.5MHz. But the bigger number does
not mean faster or even better coverage. In fact, Maloney noted that the
higher the frequency, the harder it is to send over long distances.
“If the Internet delivery providers are forced to use the higher
frequencies, it is ten times more expensive in infrastructure than if the
standard moves into the lower frequencies,” he said.
Maloney said fiber as a high-speed connector has not stopped because of
the cost. It stopped because of the land use rights: “Having to get
permission from neighbors, breaking up streets and replacing roses are not
something that carriers want to deal with,” he said.
The key then, according to Intel, is access via transmission towers, which
currently serve cellular networks but could easily be outfitted with WiMAX
cards. But only those companies with the leasing rights to these towers will
be the ones that have control over wireless broadband to the home, Maloney
pointed out.
As for WiMAX competing with other wireless broadband technologies such as
WCDMA, the Intel executive said he is skeptical that will be the case once
the 802.16e (backhaul) comes into play.
“The infrastructure is going modular with more standardized components,”
Maloney said. Intel is one of a handful of companies that is working to
standardize routers and switches with ATCA or advanced telecommunications
communications architecture.
Beyond the hype, Intel’s WiMAX looks real enough. The company said it
will ship silicon based on the 802.16 standard this year. Intel is looking
forward to mainstream deployments for wireless DSL CPEs
and base stations in 2005. In the 2006 timeframe, Maloney reaffirmed Intel’s
plans to put WiMAX silicon in laptop processors and is expecting the
technology to pop up in it handsets running its XScale family of chips in
2007.
