Do you remember when home wireless networking burst into our lives? Suddenly we could work from any where in the house. Have you ever wanted to do the same when you are out on the road? With WiMax, now you can! WiMax is a wireless network access program that offers its subscribers citywide high-speed broadband access to the internet. You can be up to 31 miles from an antenna and still get online. Although, the further you are from the antenna the slower your connection. Here is how it works. A broadband provider sets up several cells to support a certain geographical area. While the theoretical range of WiMax is 31 miles, most cells will only support an area from three to 10 miles. Within this range, special cards based on the 802.16 wireless standards will allow mobile devices to surf the internet at high speed. This cell system is similar to how digital cell phones work now. Where this technology really shines is for mobile business computing. Imagine you are a busy sales executive. You just finished a presentation to a major client. The presentation went well, but they asked for some revisions. Normally, you would have to rush back to the office and have the revisions made. With WiMax, you could connect via your VPN. Mail the changes to your office, which would make the revisions and send them back. All in a matter of minutes. Can you imagine the level of perceived customer service your clients will have? You just told them that they are important, so important you dropped everything to handle their requests. In just minutes you emailed the changes to your boss, she reviewed and approved them and emailed the updated paperwork directly to you. Another three minutes to print them out on your portable printer and get the clients to sign! Contract closed! How could they not be impressed! Typical download speeds are in the range of 400 700 kilo bytes per second (kbps). That is slightly faster than many cable companies allow for their cable modems. It is much faster than DSL connectivity. Astonishingly, this technology is capable of speed bursts of up to 2 megabytes per second (mbps)! How can you integrate WiMax into your current business? How about setting up a wireless mobile office that is always connected to your home office? Start with getting a good laptop computer and add as much memory as it will hold. Purchase your WiMax wireless network card to get access to the broadband system. Now, think about accessories. Will you need a portable printer to print presentations and contracts for your customers? What about telephone service? Do you want to transfer your office phone to your cell? It could eat up your minutes, costing you extra money. Have you thought about Voice-over-Internet Protocol or VoIP? Another name for VoIP is Internet Phone. You could setup your office phone with a VoIP provider and take the module to the field with you. All it needs is an active internet connection to work. Another option is to use your VoIP with a software phone program. This way you could use your laptop as a telephone. There you have it, a complete mobile office. How great would it be to make plans with your clients in real time? Could your competitors even try to compete with you at this level? Most likely, they could not! In short, wireless broadband access may be the best key to increasing your competitiveness. The freedom to engage customers, on their turf, while maintaining connectivity to your office will allow you to respond to rapidly changing situations. Can you think of a better way to impress your clients than by being able respond immediately to their needs? |
