Saturday, May 22, 2010

Smart Philippines is testing their WiMax

MANILA, Philippines – Smart Communications Inc. has taken its first steps to massively deploying WiMAX technology across the country.

According to a reliable source, During his test the speed is around 3Mbps at 3km from the base station. I asked him if Smart will going to cap the speed and he said "YES". But the cap is according to the subscriber's plan. After the said test they are going to deploy the new hardware for QoS or Quality of Service. For Luzon subscriber will getting hardware from Motorola and for Visayas-Mindanao from Huawei.

Smart is the only mobile carrier in the Philippines that  uses HSPA "High Speed Packet Access" at 850Mhz and 20 in the whole world.
"With our HSPA, WiMAX, and Canopy networks blanketing the whole country, Smart will have a unique and by far superior combination of wireless broadband networks," Vea said.
"It has been our vision to provide Internet for all Filipinos — no matter where they are or what device they’re using," said Orlando Vea, Smart’s chief wireless advisor.


WiMAX is a wireless digital communications system, also known as IEEE 802.16, that is intended for wireless "metropolitan area networks". WiMAX can provide broadband wireless access (BWA) up to 30 miles (50 km) for fixed stations, and 3 - 10 miles (5 - 15 km) for mobile stations. In contrast, the WiFi/802.11 wireless local area network standard is limited in most cases to only 100 - 300 feet (30 - 100m). So even the last point of cellular signal can have internet access with Smart's 8,700 cell sites across the country, housing various network equipment, including antenna for GSM, HSPA and Canopy. Very soon, these same towers will play host to Smart’s extensive WiMAX network.

For the trial, Smart and Motorola installed the WAP 450 WiMAX Access Points equipment to a number of cell site towers across the country. The WAP 450 utilizes tower top power amplifiers that can be housed in a small cabinet, allowing for a compact cell site configuration.


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