The UK Broadband Group (UKBG), which operates a little known fixed wireless ISP called 'NOW Wireless' and also supplies B2B services over its array of licenses for the wireless spectrum, has said that WiMAX is not dead. Indeed it claims that the tech might soon be used to help the government achieve its 2015 target to bring a minimum broadband speed of at least 2Mbps to everybody in the country.

The Hong Kong-based PCCW that owns UK Broadband has nationwide WiMAX licences, which include mobile WiMAX (802.16e) services. However WiMAX, which is similar to Wi-Fi but able to provide faster broadband internet access speeds over considerably wider coverage, has been losing ground to Long Term Evolution ( LTE ) technology.

LTE is the 3.9G / 4G technology that most of the main UK and even European mobile operators are adopting for future Mobile Broadband networks. Naturally this leaves WiMAX at somewhat of a disadvantage, forcing it into becoming more of a niche solution.


The UKBG certainly has the licences and flexibility to do a lot with WiMAX, if it really wanted, although in terms of consumer propositions it has failed keep its NOW Wireless ISP up to speed with the market. Some of the ideas being talked about above are also largely ambitions that do not, as yet, have any real substance.

This has of course been the problem with WiMAX as a whole. It's a well developed technology that's been around for awhile and is fairly affordable, indeed some wireless ISPs do use it, but it has "missed the boat" so far as becoming a truly mass-market nationwide solution goes. Up next, WiMAX2.