So long, Earth. Catch you on the flip side. — Apollo 13
In a preview of the WiMax service that will blanket Chicago next spring, Motorola engineers have activated four antennas along Chicago’s Wacker Drive, to demonstrate the technology to thousands of visitors who will attend WiMax World 2007 at McCormick Place, reports the Chicago Tribune.
WimaxWorld, the world’s largest WiMAX trade fair, runs September 25 - 27, 2007, with five tracks over 3 days, 200+ speakers, 230+ exhibitors and 35 WiMAX operators.
Here’s the 2007 program, speakers, special events, conference tracks, exhibitor list, exhibitor news, the adjoining Digital Cities Broadband Summit and Motorola’s 2006 keynote.
Motorola, based near Chicago, is doing 35 WiMax trials worldwide and has a dozen contracts to build commercial systems.
The trick, said Thomas Mitoraj, Motorola’s director of WiMax Americas, is to pump 100 times more bits of data across a network at the same cost as today’s voice-oriented wireless systems, making WiMax economically attractive.
“The turning point here isn’t just technology,” said Mitoraj, “it’s economic.”
Sprint’s Xohm service will be available next year to laptop computers with WiMax cards, but by the end of 2008 and into 2009, a variety of new devices, including hand-held computers, will hit the market with WiMax capability built in. At some point, automobiles are expected to come embedded with WiMax, too.
Clearwire is also using Motorola IEEE 802.16e gear in a field trial near Portland, Oregon using Clearwire’s spectrum in the 2.5GHz frequency band.
Sprint expects to place 80% of its WiMax transmitters on cell towers, with the remaining 20% on new sites. Intel chief Paul Otellini estimates 1.3 billion people will be covered by WiMax worldwide by 2012.
WimaxWorld launches Mobile WiMAX this year.
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