Wimax beats UMTS for download speed in Italy

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Wimax beats UMTS for download speed in Italy Tuesday 7 July 2009 | 09:03 AM CET

Italian consumers association Altroconsumo has conducted a survey of alternative broadband services to ADSL, such as UMTS/HSPA and Wimax, which both offer speeds of up to 7 Mbps on paper. Altroconsumo found that Wimax in four cities offered on average double the average download speeds achieved by UMTS/HSPA. On the other hand, UMTS/HSPA has up to 18 percent higher upload speeds than Wimax. The tests revealed that Retelit and Mandarin are the operators with the fastest speeds (3.9 and 2.6 Mbps, in Fidenza and Acireale, respectively). They are followed by Linkem (in Bari) and Aria (in Spoleto). The average UMTS/HSPA download speed is around 1.5 Mbps with TIM, Vodafone and 3 Italia, following tests realised in two dozen cities. Wind emerged as last among the Italian mobile broadband providers: both for speed (500 Kbps), as well as for coverage (one third the broadband antennas of its rivals). Of the 15,000 Wimax subscribers in Italy, Aria has 8,000, while Linkem has 5,000. Aria has the cheapest offer (EUR 18 a month for 4 Mbps, including the router), but Mandarin will soon launch a 7 Mbps offer for EUR 25.

watty

Which Mobile WiMax and how much spectrum?

Neither is an alternative to DSL, unless decent spectrum width Fixed WiMax with external aerials.