Comments on: WiMAX known by just one in fifteen Japanese http://whatjapanthinks.com/2009/03/16/wimax-known-by-just-one-in-fifteen-japanese/ From kimono to keitai; research Japanese facts and figures through translated opinion polls and surveys. Thu, 10 Apr 2014 22:29:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.8.2 By: Jesse http://whatjapanthinks.com/2009/03/16/wimax-known-by-just-one-in-fifteen-japanese/comment-page-1/#comment-154140 Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:32:30 +0000 http://whatjapanthinks.com/?p=1667#comment-154140 Yikes! That’s really not a lot of penetration for a revolutionary product going to market. I would have expected pretty much universal knowledge of it in a place like Japan, at least in the under-40 crowd. Wouldn’t be quite so surprised to see such numbers here in Canada though, where I’m trying to raise start-up capital to build a nationwide WiMAX network, and so far have managed to raise a grand total of CAD$0.00.

As for what it is, WiMAX (IEEE 802.16 specification) is a networking protocol operating in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, that offers a theoretical potential performance of 300Mb/s over a range of up to 48km, non-line-of-sight. In real-world implementations, the range is hampered by the composition of obstructions, but even so, a grid spaced 10-15km between nodes could provide ample coverage for an urban or suburban area, with higher through-put at a much lower cost than Wi-Fi or 3G wireless technologies such as EvDO, or even wired technologies such as cable or DSL, especially if WiMAX networking technology is combined with a mesh network architecture. It is the only networking technology that can cost-effectively service sparsely populated rural areas, as well as wilderness areas benefiting trekkers, rescue, fire suppression and emergency services personnel, and the military.

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