WiMax may give broadband a lead over cellular service

Forget about searching for wireless Internet hot spots. Communications specialists meeting in Boston this week plan to deploy a new technology that will make wireless broadband access more common than cellphone service.

``We're thinking about this whole ecosystem in a completely different way," said Barry West, chief technology officer of the mobile broadband business group at the cellphone company Sprint Nextel Corp.

Earlier this year, Sprint Nextel said it would spend $1 billion next year and up to $2 billion in 2008 to deploy a data networking system called WiMax. Essentially, the big brother of the popular WiFi wireless networking system, WiMax offers much longer range and higher reliability.

West is betting that not only laptop computers, but also phones, video cameras, and hand-held game machines will include WiMax as a standard feature, beginning in 2008.

``We're even talking to some vendors about putting it in TVs," West said.

Indeed, the day may come when nearly every digital device will be an Internet portal.

Specialists meeting tomorrow at the WiMax World Conference at the Boston World Trade Center say that the Sprint Nextel plan has galvanized the nascent WiMax industry.

``The marketplace has clearly taken a direction with the Sprint Nextel announcement," said Mark Slater, vice president of marketing for cellphone equipment maker Nokia Inc. in Atlanta. ``The marketplace seems to be forming for real."

Cellular companies are already moving toward faster data access. For example, Sprint Nextel and Verizon Communications Inc. both field a technology called EVDO, or Evolution Data Optimized. Based on existing cellular standards, EVDO supports data transmission rates up to 700,000 bits per second. But WiMax is expected to deliver data at 1 million bits per second or better.

A number of companies like TowerStream Corp. of Waltham already offer fixed WiMax-type services to businesses. The customer sets up an antenna and aims it at a transmitter, mounted on a tower that might be miles away.

A fixed WiMax provider doesn't face the massive cost of running wires to the customer's home or business, so fixed WiMax is viewed as competitive with Internet service from telephone and cable television companies.

But Sprint Nextel and other firms have shifted the focus toward mobile WiMax systems. These would resemble cellphone systems, with a network of WiMax cells blanketing a city with ever-present Internet service.

Home and business customers could then subscribe to a mobile WiMax service that would provide Internet access anywhere, anytime. The same network could also deliver their home Internet service, just as many Americans place all their calls on mobile phones.

Small-town America is already getting a taste of the WiMax future, thanks to Clearwire Corp. Founded by cellphone pioneer Craig McCaw, Clearwire sells mobile WiMax services in markets like Burlington, N.C., and Abilene, Texas. In July, chip maker Intel Corp. and telecommunications equipment maker Motorola Corp. invested a total of $900 million in Clearwire to hasten the company's expansion efforts.

Motorola stands to benefit from a WiMax boom, because it builds much of the underlying electronics gear such networks will use. In addition, it's the world's number two maker of cellphone handsets. Motorola wants to add powerful new features like WiMax, to encourage users to upgrade their phones.

Meanwhile, Intel wants WiMax to help it fend off rival chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Earlier in the decade, Intel locked down a lead in laptops when it launched Centrino, a set of laptop chips that included built-in WiFi compatibility. Intel plans to add a WiMax chip next year, ensuring that future laptops with Centrino inside will offer instant WiMax compatibility.

But cellphones and laptops are just the beginning for WiMax, said Berge Ayvazian, chief strategy officer of the Yankee Group, a technology research firm in Boston.

``They're going to broadband-enable all kinds of consumer electronics devices," Ayvazian said, ``and the whole electronics ecosystem will become broadband-enabled."

Nextel's West foresees a future in which every camcorder will feature WiMax as standard equipment. Publishing videos online would require little more than pushing a few buttons.

``Can you imagine having the ability to create content on the go and put it on a site like YouTube?" West said.

There are also implications for computer gamers. Owners of the popular Nintendo DS hand-held game machine can play against other DS users anywhere in the world, but only within range of a WiFi hot spot. Upgrade the chip to WiMax, and gamers may never be out of range again.

But can we afford WiMax? ``It would be tough to be as cheap as DSL or cable," said Dan Coombes, senior vice president of networks and enterprise for Motorola. After all, the phone and cable companies have already laid their wires, while it will require billions to build WiMax networks.

But West thinks WiMax pricing will compare favorably with today's cellphone-based data services. ``It won't be as costly, and it won't be as oriented to the per-minute-type scheme," he said.

West also predicted that some WiMax services, like many Internet sites, will be advertising-supported, with consumers paying extra for premium WiMax services.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.