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Fujitsu Bets Big On WiMax
By Larry Hendrick | November 24, 2006
Forbes reports on the technology company, Fujutsu, and their wish to re-enter the wireless market in the United States, since pulling out many years ago. They are poised to introduce a bevy of WiMax products soon and will be smack dap in the middle of the competition.
WiMax Technology is Coming Soon to a City Near You
WiMax is the true outdoor wireless technology that can change the way we look at stationary and mobile Internet access. It is fast (40Mbs) and carries for thirty (realistically 15) miles in a proprietary format, that can easily be piped into homes and businesses.
Fujitsu Bets Big On WiMax - Forbes.com
So far, Fujitsu has invested tens of millions of dollars in WiMax technology, and Hintze believes that WiMax will likely pick up faster in Europe and Asia than in the U.S. Still, the company wants to benefit from the growth in North America and has already deployed one small WiMax network in Rhode Island, used by local businesses, with the wireless CLEC TowerStream. But competition is already heating up. On Nov. 16, AT&T (nyse: T - news - people ) announced that it has been quietly operating a commercial Mobile WiMax network in Pahrump, Nev., a small town of 45,000 residents, since this summer, a market where it does not currently offer DSL service.
The downside for many is that it will bring to light the Muni WiFi rollouts, using an indoor technology, trying to deliver “wide range” services. WiMax is the bleeding edge of what can really be high-speed Internet and it will only get better with a few years of maturing.
All this threatens the deployment of municipal Wi-Fi networks which are now being deployed in cities around the world by companies such as Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) and Earthlink (nasdaq: ELNK - news - people ). But I think that all these networks will continue to operate, not displacing each other entirely but rather complementing each other. “We are big believers that WiMax is the evolution of Wi-Fi for the metro area,” says Hintze. “And over the next couple of years, WiMax will also have hand-off capability.” That means that when you roam from one area to another, you won’t lose the signal, but rather it will be handed off to another base station similar to the way cellular networks operate today. Wi-Fi, perhaps, will continue to be used as an indoor network.
Topics: Business, Technology, WiFi |