Innove, Intel hold first WiMAX trial in Cavite

The Philippines now has its first pre-WiMAX site in General Trias, Cavite where Intel Corp. and Innove Communications led the building and testing of this new broadband wireless network technology.

The WiMAX site is Intel’s assembly and test plant in the province where some 5,000 Intel employees work. During the three months of interoperability testing, 100 Intel employees residing in any of the eight villages and subdivisions covered by the 10-kilometer radius of the WiMAX deployment will get to use a trial WiMAX account.

Wireless Interoperability for Microwave Access or WiMAX (802.16 frequency) is a wide-area broadband wireless technology that shows great promise as the "last mile" solution for bringing high-speed Internet access into homes and businesses.

While the more familiar Wi-Fi (802.11a, b and g) handles local areas such as offices or hot spots, WiMAX covers wider, metropolitan or rural areas. It can provide data rates up to 75 megabits per second (Mbps) per base station with typical cell sizes of two to 10 kilometers. This is enough bandwidth to simultaneously support (through a single base station) more than 60 businesses with T1/E1-type connectivity and hundreds of homes with DSL-type connectivity.

Intel and Innove’s collaboration is part of the Asian Broadband Campaign, a pan-regional program aimed at accelerating wireless broadband deployment in Southeast Asian countries. Intel is to provide extensive broadband wireless expertise, silicon and technical services for governments, telecommunications regulators, education, health and agriculture, public sector agencies and carriers to help them prepare for and conduct WiMAX trials.

Innove, for its part, is committed to deploy an IEEE 802.16-2004 standard-based WiMAX, including customer premise equipment (CPE) based on the Intel PRO/Wireless 5116 Broadband Interface.

"Bridging the digital divide is not just about providing access to computers but also connectivity. The country has under-invested in the area of last-mile infrastructure, that is why Internet and phone penetration rates are low. A major stumbling block is last-mile infrastructure or connection and DSL is not enough as it is still expensive," explains Gil Genio, chief executive officer of Innove.

Because wireless network requires less set-up time compared to a wired infrastructure, a carrier can easily put up WiMAX. Wireless networks are also found more cost-efficient than the conventional wired network so carriers can be more flexible in their cost structure and offer the service at a more affordable price.

However, Genio admits a lot of work remains in deploying WiMAX, one of which is avoiding getting trapped in the hype surrounding this new technology.

There are also technical compatibility and interoperability issues, specifically between WiMAX and 3G, although Genio says it should not affect the capabilities of WiMAX as both worlds will eventually converge. He also calls WiMAX as future-proof by the time 4G comes around.

The trial deployment is expected to spur widespread access and adoption of innovative services such as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) and online gaming, and facilitate the availability of rich digital content and services that will help improve lives and how businesses operate. Genio forecasts commercial WiMAX deployments here and around the world starting next year.

"A paradigm shift will happen in broadband when it becomes pervasive. WiMAX is an important component as it’s based on a set of standards important for interoperability. Innove prefers standards over proprietary because it brings economies of scale…2006 will be exciting with the proliferation of last-mile choices, and with PC costs dropping, we will have a happy confluence that will lead to a broadband revolution at the start of 2006," Genio says.

Meanwhile, the Philippines can use either the 3.5GHz or the 2.5GHz spectrum for wireless broadband, says Raymond Remoquillo, district manager of Intel’s SEA Communications, iCafe and Gaming Customer Solution Group. The Cavite trial site is on the 3.5GHz spectrum and supports fixed WiMAX (802.16d).

Remoquillo says commercial deployments will be on the 802.16e frequency which is the "nomadic" WiMAX.

The 802.16d (also known as 802.16-2004) offers limited mobility, while the 802.16e brings full mobility.

The two are incompatible and the radios used are different. But customers should not be affected by this, assure Intel and Innove officials, adding that although 802.16d and 802.16e require separate networks, they can co-exist when planned properly.

"We will probably have the fixed WiMAX until 2006, then we will start to have the portable type in 2007, then Centrino WiMAX in 2007-2008 to be followed by converged devices (PCs/mobile phones) in 2008-2009," says Remoquillo.

According to Intel and Innove, the interoperability testing has been smooth so far. Unlike the Philippines, other countries in the region have not yet defined their spectrum allocations and usage model for WiMAX.

The Philippines, through the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), has at least identified WiMAX as a strategic tool for education, local government projects, and for advertising the products of small and medium enterprises, among others.

To date, Remoquillo says there are over 150 trial WiMAX sites worldwide. In another 10 years, he says over 500 million computers are expected to be connected to the Internet via wireless broadband.