January 11th, 2012 | 
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WiMax is a new standard in wireless communication that many industry insiders predict will come to be the backbone of a nationwide telecommunications network that will replace conventional GSM and 3G mobile phones within the next few years. WiMax works in a similar way to the WiFi networks we use with laptop computers, but is active over a much larger area, and offers extremely fast networking speeds.
The idea behind Wimax is as an extended wireless network that would allow for people using wireless computers to get access to the Internet in almost any location within the country. This was seized upon by manufacturers of mobile phones as a possible way of breaking the network stranglehold of the big mobile phone companies like O2, Vodafone, and Orange as a potential mobile phone network.
The incredibly high data transfer speeds offered by the Wimax network would allow for more users to connect through a single cell in the network, and 
offer a wider range of services than is currently available to be offered. In addition to this, all phones would communicate through IP rather than through GSM style networks.
Users would be able to do everything that they currently can, but because of the much larger available bandwidth available on the system, the costs of using a mobile phone with a Wimax network would be an order of magnitude cheaper than conventional networks.
Some of the latest smart phones such as the Nokia N95 are already able to connect wirelessly to the internet through existing WiFi hotspots for additional data capabilities, but a Wimax network on a nationwide scale would allow even more phones to take advantage of the service, and it would become a scalable alternative.
Users would make calls over the Internet as they currently do with a VOIP service, allowing for practically free communication. The networks would need to change their business models in order to supply the technology, and it is feasible that micro operators would come into the market and offer regional networks that users could roam through.
How the nationwide Wimax network would be implemented is still up for debate, but in the areas where it has been trialled it has been very successful, and users have reported that the service quality is first class.
For it to take off the price of the technology will need to fall considerably, but this has been the case over the last few years anyway, and with large take up it would be a necessary result of the scale economy of technology.
