Getting hands on a WiMax future

WiMax, the much-hyped next generation wireless technology, is about to become a real alternative for a small pocket of Northland phone and internet users.

From next month, when you dial a local Auckland number there is a chance your call will be re-routed to the home or business of a CallPlus customer based in Whangarei.

There's nothing particularly startling about call-forwarding technology in itself: Northland companies with an Auckland client base have been able to re-route their calls for years.

What is revolutionary about the new CallPlus service is that the calls will be beamed into Whangarei via a wireless WiMax connection, cutting out any connection to Telecom's local calling network.

While other telecommunications companies such as Woosh already offer calling services that bypass Telecom's local loop, the CallPlus Whangarei initiative will be the first in the country offering a WiMax-based voice and high-speed broadband service.

Globally, WiMax is gaining traction as a communication technology with the speed and reach to challenge fixed line options like DSL. It is even being touted as offering a viable alternative to mobile phone networks.

It will be a few years yet before Telecom or Vodafone subscribers can throw out their mobile phone in favour of a WiMax handset, but the CallPlus launch of its $3 million WiMax trial will give up to 13,000 Whangarei residents in the target area a taste of the technology's capabilities.

The company says it will take WiMax to other centres next year and is enthusiastically talking about eventually spending about $250 million on a nationwide WiMax network.

CallPlus marketing manager Mark Callander says the company appreciates that to attract customers it needs to offer "considerably more value" than broadband users now get by spending around $30 a month for a DSL connection.

The company hasn't yet finalised prices for its Whangarei trial but Callander says it hopes to lure customers with a package offering consistently high-speed internet access and advanced phone features such as cheap call-forwarding, a second line, call waiting and fax services.

"When you start to talk about those type of concepts and disruptive [pricing] models there's a lot of value starting to come into the services we're offering," Callander says.

"The services we're putting together are designed to disrupt the pricing that consumers are used to. We're really trying to pick up hot spots we think people will value so they will be compelled to take up our voice and broadband service."

CallPlus, part of the telco and internet service provider group that includes Slingshot, is developing its WiMax network through a separate new subsidiary, Blue Reach, which it says will eventually also act as a wholesaler of phone and internet services to other ISPs.

Blue Reach general manager Graham Walmsley says recent announcements by companies involved with the development of WiMax networks in the United States and Britain show the technology has a healthy future.

"I think it's got enough traction and enough backing," Walmsley says.

"We've tried some earlier technologies as well to look at ways to bypass the local loop and the good thing about WiMax is that it does give you the quality of service control to allow you to deploy voice over it.

"That's obviously a critical component of it."

Intel has been a key promoter of WiMax. The chip-maker has latched on to the technology as a means of staking a claim to be part of the burgeoning mobile device market.

Intel has supported dozens of WiMax initiatives around the world in a bid to foster its understanding of the technology. That support has included helping CallPlus and Hastings-based telco and ISP Airnet with the development of marketing strategies around their use of WiMax.

Intel has also talked to Woosh, which also wants to build a WiMax network.

Sean Casey, an Intel business development manager based in Sydney, says within two or three years Intel chips will enable computer manufacturers to integrate WiMax access into their notebooks the way Wi-Fi is built in today.

For that reason, Intel is heavily involved in the industry groups developing WiMax operating standards.

Being involved in technology trials in a number of countries allows Intel to tackle "interoperability" issues, ensuring WiMax-enabled devices work on multiple networks in different countries, he says.

"We might make chips but we really need to support all layers of the ecosystem. We need to support the guys who are building with our products, we need to support the channels to market for those products, and now that computing and communications are coming together we need to start to support the service providers to make sure they are building the networks that are going to take advantage of our products."

Airnet chief executive Cecil Averill says his company has WiMax equipment and is working towards securing rights to the spectrum required to put it into service.

"The big benefits of WiMax is that it's a standard. Multiple vendors will be producing equipment that is interoperable," Averill says.

"The day will come when a consumer can buy a device from Dick Smith Electronics and it will connect by right to our base station."

He said that would make WiMax a cost-effective option in time.

Mobile network operators like Telecom and Vodafone, however, remain confident that their networks will continue to be effective alternatives to WiMax, which has yet to be rigorously tested in a commercial environment.

Mike Hobby, a Lucent Technologies marketing manager specialising in CDMA mobile network technology, says planned advances to CDMA networks - such as Telecom's - will meet or exceed the data speeds available over WiMax.

WHAT IS WIMAX?

* Acronym for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access.

* Often described as "Wi-Fi on steroids".

* Whereas Wi-Fi signals have a maximum range of only a few hundred metres from a transmitting base station, WiMax signals can travel several kilometres.

* WiMax connection speeds are also significantly faster than Wi-Fi.