地震终极验证：WiMax完胜3G

WiMax survived Japan quake,says Intel exec

Peter Clarke

WiMax wireless LAN technology has proved more resilient than 3G cellular technology during the earthquake that hit Japan last Friday (March 11) and its aftermath, according to an Intel executive.

Ton Steenman, vice president and general manager of the embedded computer group at Intel, said he had been in Japan immediately prior to the earthquake. "The 3G phone network completely broke down. The WiMax network stayed up and running throughout all the issues that Japan has had during the last week. ATMs [automated teller machines] and digital signage are often connected through WiMax. A lot of services are overlaid on WiMax."

The current WiMAX revision provides up to 40-Mbit/s with the IEEE 802.16m update expected to offer up to 1-Gbit/s fixed speeds.

When asked if he thought the robustness demonstrated by WiMax would help with its market acceptance in competition against 4G-LTE, Steenman said: "You may think that the cellular world has moved to 3G but most of the world runs on GSM and other 2G technologies. 4G-LTE will come in 5 to 10 years. WiMax is here today and has very good coverage in many geographic areas."

Steenman concluded: "WiMax is a very robust communications technology. We will continue to see that success grow."