WiMax 2 standard ready for approval, goal of 100 Mbps downlink speeds

Computerworld is reporting that the second iteration of the WiMax 4G technology — known as WiMax 2 or 802.16m — is ready to be finalized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) this November. After approval, the WiMax 2 Forum hopes to see WiMax 2 handsets in the marketplace by the end of 2012. Mohammad Shakouri, the VP of the WiMax Forum, has said that the goal is “to deliver average downlink speeds of more than 100Mbps to users.” The newer, faster WiMax will not saturate areas any better than its predecessor, although it will offer backwards compatibility to the first generation WiMax (802.16e). At it’s current rate, Internet traffic is predicted to double every year from now until 2013. Experts estimate that the world will consume roughly 1.3 million terabytes of data per month… in video alone. Bearing that in mind, it’s good to see the bandwidth threshold of these 4G technologies continue to rise!

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