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WiMAX vs. Wi-Fi

Wow. You got these two technologies so backwards that I'm not quite sure where to start.

WiMAX (IEEE 802.16) is a technology designed for using high-powered, centralized transmission towers to provide connections between an ISP and an end-user. It is identical to the existing hierarchical ISP network and business model. It provides all the requirements to maintain the status quo--most importantly, the use of a regulated spectrum.

The regulated spectrum is nothing but government-enforced corporate monopoly on a set of frequencies that, for instance, only a very few ISPs in any given city would be allowed to use. Here in Atlanta where I live, I promise you the WiMAX spectra will belong to AT&T and Comcast, and nobody benefits from that EXCEPT AT&T and Comcast. WiMAX also includes technology for guaranteeing Quality of Service (QoS), which is mostly a code word for a tiered and non-neutral Internet.

Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11) has extremely low capital expenditure costs as compared to WiMAX. Any one of us can go out and buy Wi-Fi transceivers--for instance, a wireless router or a wireless card--for practically nothing. It runs over unlicensed (free) areas of the spectrum. It has no provisions for QoS, meaning the network is forced to be "dumb" and keep every user on an essentially level playing field. It also has the absolute most important feature for your so-called "dot commons": ad-hoc mode.

The dirty little secret that ISPs don't want you to know is that Wi-Fi has the potential to make their entire business model irrelevant. Ad-hoc mode allows all Wi-Fi devices, such as personal computers and laptops, home routers, PDAs, etc., to connect to each other in a decentralized "cloud" of connectivity. Most anywhere you go in a large city, you're within range of at least one other Wi-Fi device. With each device acting as relays between the rest of the "cloud," the entire city could stay networked among itself without any hierarchical ISP or centralized infrastructure required.

Wi-Fi is cheap, accessible, and decentralized enough to put the control of the network into the hands of the users, if enough people were to understand and use that functionality of the standard. WiMAX is just the next technology for the telecom corporations to maintain the status quo and their stifling monopoly over networked communication.

Posted by: kuronekoyama   Posted on: 08/27/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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