WiMAX WIRELESS BROADBAND.

This paper deals with the skepticism surrounding the Worldwide Interface for Microwave Access (WiMax) in 2005. WiMax is a metropolitan-area-network technology that fits between wireless local area networks, such as 802.11, and wireless wide area networks, such as the cellular networks. Bandwidth generally diminishes as range increases across these classes of networks. WiMax, proponents, however, do not believe that a nationwide rollout in the U.S. is a prerequisite for success. Many developing nations have no entrenched wired infrastructure and no plans to dig ditches and install one. The less-than-$100 price point is precisely what Intel hopes to enable with its Rosedale chip, according to Joe English, director of marketing for the Broadband Wireless Division of Intel. According to English, the Rosedale design focused on low-cost customer-premises equipment, whereas other WiMax chip developments target enterprise or base-station applications, as well. With programmability as a requirement, one would also expect field programmable gate arrays to be players in the WiMax base-station space. But, Asif Batada, strategic marketing manager for Altera's wireless business unit, claims that the bulk of the interest he is seeing is for the still-under-development 802.16e standard or mobile flavor of WiMax. Part of the negative aura has come from grumbling about the WiMax Forum's certification process. The wild card in the mobile-WiMax equation is how the technology aligns with cellular technologies. INSET: WiBRO WILL FIRST ROLL OUT IN SOUTH KOREA.