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Imagine chatting on the net on a train journey between Ahmedabad and Mumbai or checking emails at the back of your car while reaching office without an expensive blackberry or slow connectivity of a local internet service provider.
Yes, the constant transition in the technology has reached the next stage of WiFi. WiMax is here. Very soon, 10 major cities like Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai and Pune would be getting a base station for WiMax. But what exactly is WiMax?
“WiMax is a technology of the future. The vision is that internet will go wireless and high speed with it. Through WiMax, the whole area of a city can have internet access as the WiMax enabled computers receive signals without any wire,” says Chirag Mehta, CEO and managing director of a leading internet service providing company.
Isn’t the current technology sufficient for making things easier? “The problem with the current technology is that whatever is wireless is low speed. We still have not been able to get real good speed on wireless,” explains Mehta.
In spite of a lot of talks about Wi-Fi enabled zones, one still can’t see a lot of people using it. “I’ve tried going to the cafes and used internet at Wi-Fi enabled campuses too. The problem is with the speed.
Broadbands are much more fast here, though they don’t provide with any mobility,” says Shaunak Thakur, a student. Mehta replies, “It has more to do with the Indian set up. Because of RCC constructed walls, the signals of access points get limited.
One has to deploy more access points for that. In other countries, wooden set up helps in the WiFi connectivity. WiMax might come as an answer to all these limitations.”
How far has WiMax advanced in India? “It is at a very early stage of deployment right now. Almost 170 countries in the world are going through initial deployment. The space and defence researchers are already using this technology.
For deploying it for common use, we need to have higher spectrum frequency free from them,” says ANJ Aradhya, General Manager and National Co-ordinator, Broadband Projects in India.
With laptops getting affordable, will WiMax be accessible to the masses? “It will take some time. Currently, WiMax will be limited to the business class. It might take some time in being available to the masses, but when it comes, there is no escape from this technology,” claims Aradhya.
WiMax surely seems ready to unwire the future. Are you ready for it?
