wimax attracting global interest: the australian

Source: The Australian Newspaper

Wi-max attracting global interest
Michael Sainsbury
July 27, 2006

GLOBAL media and internet companies including News Corporation and Yahoo are eyeing emerging wireless technology wi-max as a new media platform alternative to traditional mobile networks and fixed-line broadband networks.
Locally, the technology already has the support of pay-TV group Austar and Sydney-based broadband company Unwired.

It is also being given close consideration by the federal Government, which is preparing to hand out $1.1 billion in funds for regional broadband networks that will be eventually used for video services as well as internet and voice. Close to 70 submissions for the funds were received.

Broadband technologies such as wi-max help satellite-based pay-TV groups such as Austar and Direct TV in the US - in which News Corp, publisher of The Australian, holds an interest - provide the so-called triple play of video, internet and voice services.

News Corporation chief Rupert Murdoch has long toyed with wireless networks and it was reported in the US this week that he may take stake in wi-max group Clearwire.

In Japan, the broadband alliance between Softbank and Yahoo also announced a wi-max trial network.

"I would expect to have wireless broadband in at least two or three cities before the end of the year, and then it might take two or three years to build it out across the entire country," Mr Murdoch told The Hollywood Reporter.

Wi-max is the latest generation of wireless technologies based on fixed-line computer networks. Its first iteration, known as wi-fi, is used by laptop computer users to connect to the internet in so-called hotpots, popular in places such as airports and coffee shops.

Wi-fi is also used for wireless home networks, using a fixed-line broadband service such as cable or asymmetric digital subscriber line to connect to many devices throughout the home.

Wi-max offers the promise of high data speeds - at least as fast as the next generation of cable networks and copper-based ADSL broadband services and allows operators to bypass fixed networks for the so-called last mile to the customer.

The technology also extends to 8km, about four times as far as ADSL.

Another benefit of wi-max is that it offers easy interactivity.

As with many new technologies, the promise often lies many years from reality. Wi-max has been talked up by many vendors and operators for number of years.

This week Intel, the world's largest maker of computer chips, unveiled its long-awaited ships set for wi-max. By next year, the main computer makers will be selling laptop computers with wi-max installed, obviating the need for expensive, cumbersome modems associated with fixed-line broadband.

Austar is already spending $50million on 115 towers in regional Australian towns. Its AUS Alliance with Unwired and Soul wants more money from the Government to deploy another 600 towers.

New media groups such as Yahoo, Microsoft and Google are increasingly moving into access technologies that have traditionally been the purview of telecommunications companies. Now bigger media groups such as News are exploring the idea.

Microsoft and Yahoo recently added internet-based voice services to their popular messaging service, which between them has more than 30 million users around the world.

Last week, Telstra - which was excluded from the auction of wi-max spectrum - made it clear that it sees the technology as a threat to its new $1.1 billion third generation mobile network.

However, not everyone is convinced by the technology. A report by analysts at HSBC, the Hong Kong-based bank, earlier this year was titled Wi-max Anti-Climax.