eWEEK Labs Wild Wireless Ride

WiMax Mobile Demonstration

Motorola’s test network consisted of four temporary WiMax towers spread around the city. In just six weeks, Motorola was able to identify and acquire the rights to tower locations, then perform the deployment. Motorola representatives made it clear that the network was not optimized and that there would be some coverage brownouts along our route–they took what tower locations they could get–but the speed with which the network was deployed speaks volumes about the flexibility WiMax can provide.

In a Chevy Suburban outfitted with a WiMax backbone, we drove around the city to gauge the speed and handoff capabilities of the technology.

Motorola’s CPE (customer premises equipment) was mounted in the back of the truck. They used their desktop model, which supports the mobile WiMax standard, 802.16e.

The in-dash computer streamed music from Yahoo LaunchCast throughout the journey. Also, a built-in GPS downloaded the latest maps via WiMax each time we conducted a search.

The folks in the back seat got their own computers, as well, powered by Networks In Motion. We were able to place calls over WiMax using SkypeOut from these systems.

The CPE also provided a local Wi-Fi network in the vehicle, so we could surf the Net via standard clients like a laptop or the iPod Touch. While watching a Democratic candidate debate, and I did experience some hiccups in the video.