Last week I covered: "Why ONLY 84k for free?" This week I'll address the last question, "Why not WiMax?"

There have been quite a few press releases about muni-wireless projects stating a WiMax solution. Muskegon and Grand Rapids both come to mind in Michigan.

First of all, what is WiMax? WiMax is an acronym. It stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access. Although there are others, the IEEE standard most commonly referred to as WiMax is 802.16e. The WiMax forum website has an excellent FAQ regarding its definition, status and advantages.

So why isn't 20/20 going with WiMax? There are a number of reasons, first and foremost is the county, its stakeholders and 20/20 Communications want to deploy now.

Providing a WiMax solution would have delayed the Wireless Washtenaw pilots and soon to start full build for months on end. In urban areas, where there are many alternatives for internet access, a delayed roll-out might be tolerated. But in rural areas such as Manchester, Freedom, Sharon, and Lyndon townships (to name a few), a majority of residents are limited to painfully slow dial-up Internet connections. Delaying a high-speed internet solution for them has many negative effects. Slow internet connections affect a high school student trying to do research for homework, an adult trying to work from home during an unexpected school closing or a local business needing access to the net.

Also, WiMax is in its infancy stage at best. The 802.16e standard was just approved in late December of 2005. Manufacturers are in the early stages of developing equipment and receiving WiMax Forum certification. Plus there are noted interoperability issues between manufacturers.

As a consumer, it's not always a good thing to be first in technology. For one thing it's expensive. The first PC I purchased for my department when I worked at Parke-Davis, an IBM PC XT, cost $18,000. The HP LaserJet desktop printer for it was $6,000. That sounds like ancient history but it really wasn't that long ago. A more recent example of waiting for the right time is the dramatic drop in price of flat screen TV's in the last two years.

The present cost of WiMax network equipment is astronomical as compared to WiFi network solutions. That cost would be passed to consumers.

So, having said all that, the question behind the question is: "Will 20/20 ever use WiMax?" Absolutely!!! As the technology matures, becomes available from more vendors and costs become more competitive, 20/20 will migrate Wireless Washtenaw to a combination WiFi/WiMax platform. Washtenaw County project coordinators ensured the move to WiMax by including it in the provider agreement 20/20 signed with the county.

As a matter of fact, in the rural areas 20/20 will deploy pre-WiMax radios with OFDM over 802.11a. OFDM is a major component of the new WiMax standard and provides signal transmission in non-line of site (NLOS) situations. OFDM stands for Orthogonal Frequency Divisional Multiplexing.

Now, I'm sure everyone knows what OFDM does but if you want to refresh your memory, check out the third from last question on the WiMax Forum FAQ website.

20/20 Communications was selected by Washtenaw County to provide county wide Wireless Internet access.

The Pilot Phase of the project ended on February 28.

We are no longer accepting pilot participants in Saline or Manchester. We are only accepting mobile pilot users in the downtown Ann Arbor area. Those currently on the pilot will continue to receive service. 20/20 will contact pilot participants in all locations concerning an upcoming billing test within the next month.

The next phase is Pre-Deployment. I will address the pre-deployment phase in next week's update.

There are four (4) phases to Wireless Washtenaw:

• Pilot
• Pre-deployment
• Deployment
• Customer acquisition and retention.

The phases will begin to overlap as portions of them are completed throughout the county.

If you have questions or would like to register for the service when it's in your area, visit our Wireless Washtenaw "Contact Us" webpage.