Service providers have been trying to supplement their networks with wireless “last mile” technologies for years.

Start-ups and established carriers alike spent fortunes on high-end MMDS solutions in the late '90s, for example, looking for a way to bypass the LEC and reach customers directly. Wireless ISPs (WISP) have invested in various technologies to reach customers in rural areas and small towns that aren’t well served by wireline technologies. Even the ILECs themselves have been conducting trials with wireless vendors, looking for a way to reach their customers who can’t be reached economically by DSL.

So far, none of these efforts has amounted to much. The IXC and CLEC MMDS deployments, for example, were plagued by high costs and less-than-stellar take rates among their “lit-building" customers. Some smaller WISPs are having success, but generally they are focused on very small markets.

Service providers who want to go wireless need a solution that mixes low capital costs (that can compare with DSL or other wireline solutions) with low OpEx and provisioning costs (in other words, getting away from the truck roll, “antenna on the roof” model that has been par for the course in the past).

Oh, and add to the mix the fact that carriers want a reliable, standards-based solution from established vendors - betting on unknown start-up equipment vendors is no longer part of the game, especially for larger carriers.

Enter WiMAX - the industry consortium promoting wireless products falling under the 802.16a group of IEEE standards.  802.16 defines many different variants of the standard - in different frequency ranges, and with different characteristics - and provides the baseline MAC and PHY definitions that are the underpinnings of any WiMAX gear.

The WiMAX Forum was founded, in part, to help narrow down this broad standard into just a few more narrowly defined standards designed to meet specific service provider needs. Perhaps even more importantly, the WiMAX Forum will also provide interoperability testing and certification (a la the Wi-Fi Alliance) that ensures CPE and network equipment from various vendors will work together right out of the box.

Technically, WiMAX/802.16 gear can provide true broadband access (the speed of any particular end-user “circuit” depends upon frequency used and network architecture), with end-to-end QoS support for both ATM and IP QoS systems, and can support applications like Internet Access, VoIP, and even,in future iterations, mobility. WiMAX systems in the lower frequency ranges of the standard (2-11 GHz) can also provide non-line-of-sight access to customers, and, in many cases, allow customer self-installs and indoor CPE/antenna placement.