There are no ‘silver bullets’ when it comes to providing broadband services. Operators need to match technology to the demographics of the cities and markets that they serve.
Enforta uses a variety of technologies, but wireless technologies (including the new WiMAX technology) are particularly well suited and economically efficient for Russia given the projected broadband penetration that is forecast during the next several years.
Enforta currently procures its wireless equipment from both Alvarion www.alvarion.com and Infinet Wireless of Russia www.infinetwireless.com.
What Exactly is WiMAX?
‘WiMAX’ stands for ‘Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access’ and is more precisely known by ‘telecom techies’ as IEEE 802.16. Whereas Wi-Fi is designed for “local area networking”, WiMAX is designed for “metropolitan area networking” with each base station covering several square kilometers. In addition to sending the signal farther than Wi-Fi, WiMAX provides the operator with means to monitor and manage the quality of the service provided to each individual subscriber.
Like Wi-Fi there are defined standards for WiMAX that have been jointly developed by the 400+ members
of ‘the WiMAX Forum’ www.wimaxforum.org including Intel, Sprint/Nextel, Korea Telecom, Samsung, Ericsson, Nokia, British Telecom, Fujitsu, AT&T and others.
Enforta is also a proud member of the WiMAX Forum.
While WiMAX ‘certified’ technology is relatively new to the market, early variants (often refereed to as ‘pre-WiMAX’) have been successfully deployed around the world by both incumbent and emerging operators. Enforta uses both pre-WiMAX and WiMAX equipment, and both can provide customers with high quality service. WiMAX equipment can provide services at distances as far as 8 km from a base station on a ‘line-of-site’ basis and up to 2 km from a base station on a ‘non-line-of-site’ basis.