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Wimax nomads will skirt the law and create a charging headache
So, the good news is that Wimax services will start to rollout in Britain. The bad news is that we don’t know exactly when (though we can assume it will be a matter of months) nor how much they will cost.
The people from Freedom4, formerly known as Pipex Wireless, haven’t yet worked these things out themselves, judging from yesterday’s launch press conference.
The uncertainty starts with the company’s licence to use its precious spectrum. Cliff Mason, manager of Ofcom’s mobile and broadband wireless policy team, pointed out that the terms were agreed 13 years ago when the technological climate was very different from today.
Ofcom later granted what is called a “variation” to allow the spectrum to be used for any wireless fixed link, following a European policy of allowing use of new technologies unless there are clear reasons against them.
But the meaning of “fixed” is far from, well… fixed. Wimax uses multiple-in-multiple-out (MIMO) technology with several aerials that can form beams on the fly, directing transmitted energy towards whoever happens to be using it at the time.
So if you have a Wimax account and a Wimax-equipped notebook (they are coming in next year) there is nothing to stop you using the service from a local park. And as the service becomes available elsewhere you could use it in other cities too.
This is what has become known as nomadic use, as opposed to roaming use like a mobile phone when you can move between base-station catchments without dropping a link. Nomadic use is supported by the fixed version of the Wimax standard, known as 802.16d; roaming uses the more recent 802.16e.
Technically, moving around your neighbourhood using Wimax may be a breach of the licence, but it would require a test case to establish the fact. “I think it would be a little OTT to prosecute someone for it,” said Mason.
Wider nomadic use, which would require support from Freedom4, might be trickier legally as things stand. There seems little doubt that it will get the Ofcom go-ahead. Perhaps 16e will too, but mobile-phone operators may have a thing or two to say about that considering the billions they paid for their licences. Freedom4 chief executive Mike Read said yesterday that he could not say whether the company would have to pay extra.
In practice there is little to choose between 16d and 16e for data users, who will usually be static when they use a service.
Charging for all this could be a tricky business. If you have a home base station and a nomadic Wimax notebook, can you use both on the one account? Paul Senior, chief technology officer of Wimax-equipment maker Airspan, pointed out: “There’s no problem if you charge by the megabyte.”
That would not go down well among people who have got used to flat-rate broadband charges. Freedom4 has some tricky waters to navigate.
A quick correction to terminology. Roaming is where handsets move from one operator to another, and is normally accompanied by losing the connection. Handover is moving from one base station to another, and is one of the things that "mobile WiMAX" brings.
Posted by Phil | November 2, 2007 3:25 PM