Vodafone interested in WiMax

WiMax wireless technology allows service providers to cover large areas of up to 50 km through radio waves with a single antenna, and a speed of data transfer of up to 70 MB a second. Besides Internet access, WiMax also allows providing voice services over the Internet (VoIP), as well as digital TV. (IPTV). This technology is still in development worldwide, but the necessary equipment to launch such services is already present on the market. According to current information, access to WiMax data transfer services will be possible both by means of mobile devices, such as a data card (a radio modem), as well as by means of fixed equipment, specifically an antenna that will pick up the WiMax signal and a type of “decoder” (modem). The equipment by which the Internet or digital television services are to be accessed needs to be connected to this decoder. “Vodafone Romania made the first technical fixed WiMax (802.16) tests in Romania as early as in October 2004, to evaluate the potential of this technology in view of the demand of the market and of the services requested by clients,” Marian Pantazescu, Senior Network Director of Vodafone Romania told ZF. It is also planning “to test mobile WiMax (802.16e) solutions, as soon as the technology becomes available,” Pantazescu added. ZF