Intel and Pipex roll out Wimax

Intel and Pipex have announced their plans to roll out Wimax coverage across London and Manchester in early 2007.

Wimax is a long-range wireless standard that is designed to provide broadband speeds over tens of miles. Eventually, it is thought that Wimax could replace cables as the way to get broadband in the majority of cities. It is also hoped that the distance capabilities will help it carry broadband to more rural areas.

There is no news on pricing and speeds.

The new network will be called Pipex Wireless, and it will be funded by intel to the tune of $25m.

Pipex hopes that if the first two deployments are successful, it will roll out more in the top 50 population centres in Britain over the coming few years.

No doubt other broadband providers will be keen to start using Wimax to get services to us, so expect to see more of these announcements coming. Intel is also very hopefully that it will kick off in a big way, since it makes lots of networking kit to receive the signal.

Who is your current broadband provider, and would you switch to Wimax if the deal was good enough? Let us know your thoughts on wireless technology down in the News Forum.