PacketOne Networks, better known as P1 is steadily expanding their WiMAX network coverage in Peninsula. The most recent one is announced in some place in East Coast and Southern area. It is just a matter of time for them to reach East Malaysia, probably by earlier next year if not by the end of this year. I was informed that in Peninsula P1 is not the only player that brought in the WiMAX technology to Malaysian. Even in Sarawak there's already a provider, RedTone who claimed to have a network speed 44 times faster than any other existing wireless broadband service provider. And all that comes with a hefty price; even their cheapest package cost more than MYR100, but in return you get more monthly bandwidth to utilize as well as a fixed IP address, allowing you to virtually host your own web server at home, provided that you are willing to keep it on the whole day of course.
Wireless broadband has gradually maturing in Malaysia, thanks to their initial presence in the from of 3G network since 2006. Soon after that the 3.5G follow suit and now we have WiMAX in the list. Most of us may have known well about both 3G and 3.5G. To sum it up, 3G is the most basic wireless your money can get while 3.5G is nothing but 3G on steroid, and comes with extra price too. WiMAX on the other hand evolved from a completely different path. However, unlike the relationship between 3G and 3.5G, the WiMAX you know today is not Wi-fi on steroid, so to speak. It sure have evolved from the traditional Wi-fi but now it is a completely different technology from its 'ancestor'.
Just like both 3G and 3.5G (which have been existing long before they become accessible to us), WiMAX also has been around since 2005 when Intel first reveal about it on that time. As we already know Intel is one of many tech bodies who pushes the Wi-fi technology to us, thanks to their Centrino technology found in most notebooks. It was also their plan to bring Wi-fi to the next level and Wi-MAX is the answer. However, unlike Wi-fi, WiMAX requires special carrier (service provider) to put the technology into use, thus it is not really an upgraded version of Wi-fi.
Well, you might wonder all this time, if Wi-MAX is not Wi-fi on steroid, then what is? Ever heard about Super Wi-fi? For me that is what I call Wi-fi on steroid. Believe it or not, the one behind this technology is not Intel but Altai Technologies. Rather than working on something new (like how WiMAX was born) their approach is simple; boost and enhance whatever the current Wi-fi today have and voila, you got Super Wi-fi. Unlike Wi-MAX, you don't need special modem to connect to it. Only the access point needs to be change and with that all are set. Hmm, I wish I could experience it myself too but I have a feeling that this Super Wi-fi will be like cable TV technology that never sees it's day here.
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