WiMax is announced as the wireless technology of the year 2006

Wireless Internet connection is going through an unprecedented development, the estimated number of network engineers who have adopted these solutions (WiFi or WiMax) increasing 10 times.

Intel emphasized its promoting efforts for the WiMax hardware solutions, identified through 802.16, and the company previsions point put that one of the largest telecommunication companies, BT, will offer wireless Internet access over a large area in Great Britain.

Sean Maloney, leader of Intel's mobility group has declared that the 802.16d WiMax chipsets are already being distributed and that 802.16e WiMax equipments will appear in a short time. This technology offers transfer speeds comparable to those obtained through DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) support.

It seems that BT will start the acquisition of compatible equipments starting with the second half of this year, the operator being one of the most aggressive and active companies from the WiMax Forum. That is why, Intel has all the reasons to believe that this service will be available in maximum 18 months.

Mobile sytems, notebooks, PDAs, etc., which will be fitted with WiFi and WiMax solutions should be available starting with 2008-2009. Until then, due to large production volume, the cost of WiMax components will drop to 25 USD.

The members of the WiMax Forum are trying to persuade the governments of several countries to associate a frequency spectrum to WiMax services, which have used until now the frequency bands 2,5 GHz and 3,5 GHz, although the 700 MHz spectrum currently used by analogue television has been mentioned several times as a possible solution.

Maloney has declared that although he thinks 3G telephony has a high development and adoption potential, its success is questioned by the technology fragmentation and the absence of a global standard.