Meeting the Challenges of High-Capacity Indoor and Outdoor Coverage

The Perspective from WiMAX Operators
 

WiMAX promises to bring wireless broadband anywhere and anytime, on laptops, phones, game consoles, cameras and new mobile devices. Subscribers increasingly use bandwidth-heavy applications like video streaming and they do so mostly from indoor locations such as malls, classrooms, offices and homes.

What are the implications for WiMAX operators from the prevalence of wireless broadband access from indoor locations? Do WiMAX operators need to provide indoor coverage to meet the demand from their subscribers? And if so, is deep indoor coverage needed? Do they need to provide indoor coverage at launch or can they wait? What is the best approach to provide such coverage for the traffic levels expected?

We conducted a survey of leading WiMAX operators worldwide to explore their experience to date and their future plans. Despite the differences in business models, services offered and market demographics, most operators share a sense of urgency when it comes to providing robust indoor high-capacity coverage. They are actively looking at cost-effective approaches to go beyond their initial deployments which almost exclusively target outdoor coverage.