By John Mark V. Tuazon
Computerworld Philippines
July 7, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA – Chip maker Intel is touting WiMAX as the best choice to deliver mobile Internet, for what it claims to be a cheaper alternative to wireless broadband choices of today.

With the release here of initial laptop models embedded with dual-mode Intel Centrino Advanced-N + WiMAX 6250 that can do both WiFi and WiMAX access, Intel is saying that WiMAX is the way to go in terms of delivering a rich mobile Internet experience to users.

“WiMAX offers very high levels of bandwidth at a relatively low cost,” claimed Garth Collier, managing director for Asia/Japan – WIMAX, Intel Corporation.

Compared to LTE (Long-Term Evolution), widely touted as the next-generation of mobile Internet, WiMAX is a lot simpler to deploy, Collier said. “That 3G to LTE migration is simple is a misconception. With LTE, you need a Smart Antenna technology. It’s not as simple as it looks,” he added.

Collier said Intel is banking on WiMAX technology because it is what is available for deployment today. “WiMAX and LTE are two technologies delivering the same wireless solution,” he said. “Some operators need to deploy the technology now. And for them, WiMAX is the only technology available.”

Collier further stressed that the global chip maker believes commercial LTE won’t be a reality until after two years, saying it’s going to take some time to get the technology out there.

The need to address data traffic requirements, however, is evident in the fact that more and more users are demanding mobile data access today, resulting from what Collier would otherwise call as the “iPhone effect.” “Apple’s iPhone has shown a very consumer-oriented form-factor, a sleek OS, and a robust app store. [They made it so that] users will start to actually use heavy amounts of data,” he explained.

The iPhone effect, thus, is equivalent to 30 handheld units accessing the network. Translating that figure to laptops, that would equate to 450 handsets trying to drive data across the network. “What we’ve seen is that with many networks, an increase of 50% in data usage is logged whenever iPhones come to the network,” Collier added.

Interestingly, the Intel executive shared, a recent forecast on mobile data conducted by Cisco revealed a really significant growth in mobile data, confirming actual data usage today. “Everything happening through fixed line broadband is going mobile,” he stressed. “YouTube alone has over 14.6 billion videos viewed. It’s absolutely phenomenal, and we’re seeing that translating to mobile.”

The need, therefore, to address mobile data requirements that will match the current usage model of the Internet is ever more persistent. “Faster speeds drive increased Internet usage,” Collier said, adding that with WiMAX, users can experience speeds of up to 10Mbps, with average monthly usage of seven to 10 gigabyte of bandwidth.

Additionally, WiMAX can cover a larger territory than its wireless broadband predecessors. A total population of 620 million is covered by WiMAX as of 2009, Collier revealed, with Asia Pacific accounting for at least 1/3 of the coverage. “There are already real WiMAX networks, real customers, and real devices, proving a lot of different business models that 4G can deliver,” he reiterated.

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