New wireless broadband 'whispers' below the radar

[Osiris]

New wireless broadband 'whispers' below the radar

By Lucas van Grinsven, European Technology Correspondent
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A new communications tool that "whispers" on busy radio channels could enable broadband Internet services for on-the-go wireless devices or hook-up homes that cannot yet get fast Web access, its inventor said.

xMax, the latest innovation in broadband communications, is a very quiet radio system that uses radio channels already filled up with noisy pager or TV signals, said inventor Joe Bobier.

"xMax is trespassing radio frequencies, although trespassing is not the right word, because we're allowed to transmit a signal if it doesn't interfere with other, stronger signals," said Bobier.

What is unique about the system is that it can emit signals that are too weak to be picked up by normal antennas, but that can be "heard" by special aerials which know where to "listen," thus enabling dual usage of the same scarce radio spectrum.

The technology could interest a telecoms or Internet operator with no radio spectrum because it can begin a wireless broadband service with very few base stations and add more stations and increase density as demand rises.

It is also appealing for rural areas which operators find too costly to cover with the current third generation mobile phone networks which need base stations every few miles.

"We're talking about a 400 to 500 percent improvement in range," Bobier said, adding that this was still much better than Flash-OFDM, also touted as a rural area broadband system.

XG Technology, the Florida-based company which owns xMax, is in discussions with several chip makers and equipment makers to build the hardware.

Radio chips for devices should be in the $5-$6 range when built in volume while base stations will be around $350,000. Those prices are competitive considering the range covered.

LOW FREQUENCY BANDS

Stuart Schwartz, an electrical engineering professor at Princeton University, said xMax is not an efficient system to transport data through the airwaves, "but it is doing it in a benign way. You won't even know it's there. It's very clever."

[uzi9mm]

Interesting............