A wireless technology known as Wimax could bring broadband to rural areas, says a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Faster net

Wimax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is a technology designed to give people high speed access to the net over relatively long distances.A typical installation of a Wimax system could give users in an area three to 10 kilometres wide a 40 megabits per second (Mbps) connection to the net.Said the report: "one cell could theoretically allow hundreds of business connections at 1.5 mbps and thousands of residential connections at 256 kbps".Because of this ability to provide broadband speeds to a relatively large population of users, Wimax has been widely promoted as the "proper" replacement for wi-fi which offers higher speeds but typically only over a few tens of metres.

Costly venture

However, the authors of the OECD report took a more cautious line and said there were numerous uncertainties that meant Wimax was not guaranteed a rosy future.

Wimax is unlikely to replace wi-fi networks, says the report

"Despite all the excitement over Wimax, the ultimate role of Wimax in the wireless market is debatable," it said.High operating costs and technical problems forced the failure of most wireless local loop operators. The OECD pointed out that although the Wimax Forum, which oversees standards for the technology, is maintaining tight specifications to keep a cap on costs there were other issues that could still dent its success."Third-generation mobile operators have incurred great expense to roll out new networks and the prospect of starting again with a new Wimax network is not appealing," wrote the authors.Alternatively, Wimax may find a role as a service that can reach rural and remote areas where it is too expensive to run cables or upgrade exchanges to support broadband.Also some countries have run or are considering auctions for the spectrum that Wimax is supposed to use.

There were also issues to confront on security and on how Wimax networks should be managed to ensure that rivals do not try to prioritise their traffic over others.