Intel sees 2012 deployment for mobile WiMax Release 2

"Standards work will be completed by the end of this year," said Rama Shukla, a vice president and director of the WiMax program office at Intel, during a news conference in Taipei.

The new Mobile WiMax standard, 802.16m, will replace 802.16e and offer far faster download and upload speeds. The new technology will provide users 170M bps (bits per second) download speed and 90M bps upload speeds, according to Intel data, and will be fully backward compatible with 802.16e. Users will be able to use the service even while traveling at speeds up to 350 kilometers per hour, he said.

Current WiMax network operators are offering service packages for 16Mbps download and 4Mbps upload on networks using 802.16e technology.

Shukla said that this year, estimates for the number of global WiMax subscribers range from around 6 million to 10 million, led by users in the U.S., Russia and Japan. Most of those users are turning to mobile WiMax for laptop computer use. "We see very strong momentum [for WiMax] in notebook PCs today," he said.

The earlier 802.16d version of WiMax is not called mobile WiMax because it was made for devices in fixed locations, not devices on the move such as smartphones in hand or laptops inside a moving train.