After years of development, WiMAX earned its place as part of the ITU IMT2000 standards and became one of the 3G standards in October 2007. Increasingly more operators have gravitated towards WiMAX.
However, what is the user experience like that WiMAX offers? In this era of fast-developing mobile and broadband services, why has WiMAX attracted so much attention? We can find some clues from stories about WiMAX deployment and operation of Summa Telecom in Russia, STC in Saudi Arabia, and a mobile operator in South Africa.
The communication industry is experiencing a wave of unprecedented changes. The transformation from fixed voice and data to mobile services is driving the increasing importance and prevalence of wireless broadband.
Without a mature industry chain, no communication technology can be rapidly developed or applied. As an open technology, WiMAX necessitates a stable industry environment that is accessible and responsive, and that operates in an innovative and structured manner. In these terms, WiMAX certification is intended to expedite WiMAX maturity.
Despite differing opinions regarding technological development for wireless broadband networks, the shared and long-term goal across the industry remains the convergence of wireless broadband applications.
Currently, most parts of Africa lack a robust communications infrastructure. Africa is large and sparsely populated, and mostly consists of deserts and prairies. Fixed line deployment and maintenance is difficult, and copper cable resources are lacking. The penetration rate of broadband Internet access remains low at around 3%, which falls far short of the spiraling demand for broadband services.
