Tokyo Going Wireless In 6 Months (7mbit+ Wimax)

[The Coder]

Intel Demos WiMax Technology

Wireless live audio and video feeds reach the desert, a golf course, and a traveling mobile home.

Matt Hamblen, Computerworld

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

LAS VEGAS--Intel conducted a live demonstration of its WiMax broadband wireless capability for attendees of the Interop 2005 conference here, offering high-speed Internet access over a 500-square-mile area around Las Vegas.

Tuesday's demonstration included live audio and video wireless feeds into the Mandalay Bay conference center where Interop is being held, as well as 12 miles into the desert, out to a golf course near the city's southern edge, and into a mobile home traveling down the fabled Las Vegas strip.

The WiMax signal was broadcast from atop the Stratosphere Hotel on the northern edge of the city's downtown area.

Though wind in the desert location caused the audio signal there to break up, Sean Maloney, general manager of Intel's mobility group, said the signals were generally "spectacular," running at speeds of 7 megabits per second or greater.

Covering Tokyo

The technology was based on Intel's PRO/Wireless 5116 broadband interface, running on hardware from Tel Aviv-based Alvarion, Maloney said. Alvarion provides WiMax-ready hardware called BreezeMAX 3500 for service providers in France and Spain.

Maloney said that the WiMax signal was transmitted from laptop computers communicating with an Alvarion base station at the Stratosphere Hotel. The laptop gear used in the demonstration is still being perfected by various companies, he said.

Such networks are already in development in Korea and Japan, and Intel expects a downtown WiMax network in Tokyo to be fully operational within six months, Maloney said.

In comments to reporters, Maloney said that U.S. engineers have helped make WiMax effective. But other countries have been faster to implement it because they have wireless spectrum available that the United States has not provided. Though the U.S. Federal Communications Commission understands the need for more spectrum for uses such as WiMax, that spectrum has not yet been released. Maloney said that between 60 MHz and 100 MHz of spectrum is needed--"and more beyond that."

Wi-Fi Adjunct

WiMax is likely to serve as an adjunct to more-traditional public and private Wi-Fi hot spots, and it will be used to fill in areas not served by Wi-Fi or to provide back-haul connections to conventional networks, Intel officials said. Asked whether U.S. telephone providers might balk at the idea of WiMax proliferation, which could provide cheap voice-over-IP services to a range of customers, Maloney said that some Asian carriers have added wireless and Wi-Fi to round out their service offerings.

"Service providers are understandably twitchy," he said. The proper response should be to "reach customers in the best way."

-COMPUTERWORLD

[BKKdreaming]

nice idea but the airwaves are "owned" by each country , so who has the right to the spectrum they are using?

I hope they can find a frequancy that will be open everywhere.

[Firefoxx]

Remember that Japan has had 45mbit ADSL as of several years ago (when Thailand didn't even have unlimited ADSL), along with 100mbit FTTH (fiber to the home) all for around 1000 baht/month. Has Thailand taken notice? With the current situation, I doubt it. So, if we take the current lag of broadband technology between Thailand and Japan, I expect wimax to arrive here sometime, say, in the next century.

[GoodHeart]

Remember that Japan has had 45mbit ADSL as of several years ago (when Thailand didn't even have unlimited ADSL), along with 100mbit FTTH (fiber to the home) all for around 1000 baht/month.  Has Thailand taken notice?  With the current situation, I doubt it.  So, if we take the current lag of broadband technology between Thailand and Japan, I expect wimax to arrive here sometime, say, in the next century.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That [so sadly] seems to be the apparent truth here. It strikes me as the height of irony that Thailand is trying to hype itself as a model Information Society & a key player in ICT when the infrastructure is still third world <pardon me while I scream > at best.

I'm not sure if it's appropriate but I'm really tempted to blame the press here. For as much as I admire the Database section of the BK Post it seems that they *ought* to be rubbing the lack of infrastructure into the faces of the powers that be here. So why aren't they?

When you compare IT infrastructure in Korea and/or Japan to Thailand it makes for a pitiful laughable moment.

[BKKdreaming]

"When you compare IT infrastructure in Korea and/or Japan to Thailand it makes for a pitiful laughable moment"

But how is compared to countries of the same level ?

Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Phillipines ?

[Firefoxx]

Still laughable. Even Vietnam has better broadband than Thailand. About the only countries that haven't passed Thailand are Burma and Cambodia, but it will only be a matter of time.

As I remember it, it took a public statement from the French government regarding Thailand's backward broadband situation before any half-credible broadband service was started here.

[grahamb]

For work, we had to set up VPN connections in most major countries in APAC. The only 3 countries that had to have leased line connections were India, Indonesia and Thailand. In all other countries (Philippines, Malaysia, etc.) we went with ADSL connections but in those 3 countries, we couldn't guarantee the service level. We're now looking at switching Indonesia from Leased Line to ADSL because the situation has improved there. Still no plans to change it in Thailand though...

Back to the original article, it's no surprise to see that it's Intel hyping Wi-Max again

[melus]

Who in Thailand really cares that their broadband situation is second-rate and needs improving - and who would really profit from a 45Mbps connection?

[GoodHeart]

Who in Thailand really cares that their broadband situation is second-rate and needs improving - and who would really profit from a 45Mbps connection?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

^ Indeed. Good point. Probably not the few hundred thousand who have signed up for True's BB promo with promises of a steady BB of 256+ @Bt999/mth but end up with the sub-56kbps fact of True. I mean, you're right, I don't hear any chorus of consumer advocates crying out about the injustice of that. So, I guess there's no problem after all. Truth in business whatchamacallit?

Say, now there's an idea- why don't a few of you disenchanted souls get together, call the press to be there, and have a big modem smashing party in front of the True Tower.

And let's not even consider what the business or education sectors could do with a real broadband infrastructure.

Yeah, it's like those Amish and Mennonite Americans are living quite happily in their horse drawn buggy world- technology just zooms right around them and they pay no nevermind. That we're denied the opportunity to participate in a ?Mbps experience shouldn't really be a factor here, now should it.

Edited May 7, 2005 by GoodHeart

[Firefoxx]

I really don't know what melus is trying to say... is he being blunt? sarcastic? does he truly not know? does he truly think that way? trying to be subtle?

Ah, the amish, with no electricty and no birth control (which leads to no shortage of children). That's the life.

[billd766]

About a year ago I was involved in the planning of a WiFi network in Thailand starting in Bangkok which would have made available a very large bandwith to anyone who had a window in their house/apartment. At the customer end all that was required was a small panel antenna and a power point for the receiver which you could connect ito your computer.

It never got off the ground as it required the National Telecomms Committee of Thailand to have given the go ahead for the frequencies involved.

It would have given any one who used the service ADSL quality at a reasonable price which may also have had something to do with it.

Unfortunately the government had dissolved the previous committee a couple of years before due to "irregularities" shall we say, and as far as I know it has not been reconstituted. Without this authority you cannot start up any telecomms service such as AIS, DTAC or Orange etc.

However the existing operators are OK.

[GoodHeart]

I really don't know what melus is trying to say... is he being blunt?  sarcastic? does he truly not know? does he truly think that way? 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No sooner did I post than I regreted my wasted efforts. I should have just posted, "Melus, surely you jest" and been done with it.

[Firefoxx]

It never got off the ground as it required the National Telecomms Committee of Thailand to have given the go ahead for the frequencies involved.

It would have given any one who used the service ADSL quality at a reasonable price which may also have had something to do with it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sounds like what usually happens to anything that's good and cheap, and liable to take away lucrative business from established entities.

Look at the Thai railway system. Fairly extensive, but it's been stagnant for quite some time. The reason? The lucrative inter-province bus system. No way are they going to let anyone threaten their market share.

[melus]

GoodHeart understood what I meant in my remarks in post #8 above. I was being sarcastic. It seems like Thais don't care (or maybe don't know) that they're getting short-changed in broadband quality. And as long as the telecommunications industry in Thailand can get a gazillion customers for their over-priced and second-rate broadband service, why should they concern themselves with improvements, which would cut into their profits. I can't wait until this industry has to be liberalized as a prerequisite of the coming free trade agreements. Maybe then we can hope to catch up to the rest of the world.

[GoodHeart]

So! ^ It wasn't a wasted effort after all. Thank you, melus, for expanding your post.