OLPC chap gives WiMAX kicking

THE ONE LAPTOP Per Child project is no stranger to criticism, but it's unusual to see disciples of Negroponte's pet project dishing out the beatings instead of taking them. Of course, the subject is possibly the only technology even more maligned than the laptop itself, WiMAX.

Holding such promise, yet stuck in Nowheresville for the past two years, WiMAX is still struggling to gain a foothold in the world of broadband connectivity. While Intel has been a big backer, vendors are still only playing with prototype equipment at the WiMAX conference in Taiwan this week.

Michail Bletsas, comms man at the OLPC project, suggested that the major problem that the WiMAX chaps are facing is that they are trying to operate in licensed wireless bands, such as 2.5GHz. This means an awful lot of red tape to get devices to market. Bletsas suggested that devices would get made quicker, and cheaper, if they worked in unlicensed bands such as 5.8GHz, and would also have the advantage of playing nicer with the developing countries that are buying up OLPCs.

Whilst not many of the equipment manufacturers agreed with his point, everyone was able to conclude that spectrum regulation across the world is a complete mess. With very little to unify standards and regulations across different territories, deploying such a large bandwidth technology will be incredibly hard, delegates suggested. Are they only just realising that? µ