WiMAX Gets a Rocketboom Tech Treatment

A week prior to getting Intel Insiders inside the Intel WiMAX labs in Hillsboro, Oregon, Rocketboom‘s Ellie Rountree took time during her Great Northwest visit to get a more in-depth, inside-the-labs experience of what WiMAX really is, how it works and why they call it 4G.

Ellie got her first WiMAX experience at the Consumer Electronics Show. But seeing the WiMAX’d Smart car parked inside the Intel booth was really a teaser. (Link to video)

Rocketboom Tech is an offspring segment from the pioneering online video show Rocketboom, that debuted in 2004. Intel began teaming up with Rocketboom founder Andrew Baron a few months ago to learn the craft of video storytelling and to support more resources on covering inspiring technology stories. It’s not a segment about gadgets, rather it’s a weekly look at people doing interesting things with technology that may have a impact on our daily lives.

WiMAX is one of those technologies — like Wi-Fi — that Intel is helping bring to the masses. Here is a narrated animation that shows the difference between smaller Wi-Fi hotspots and WiMAX wide area-spanning broadband wireless Internet that equipped laptops and mobile devices can access while on-the-move.

Ellie hopped inside the WiMAX-fitted Smart car and took it for a spin around the Intel Jones Farm campus in Hillsboro. Later, she got to ride shotgun so she could surf the Internet using an Intel Centrino 2, WiMAX-equipped laptop. While the car was going 65 miles an hour down the road, Ellie got to stream Internet videos using the same Clear WiMAX service people are using today in the Portland area.

This is a service that can feed broadband Internet to your home — inside you turn WiMAX into Wi-Fi to connect other devices — and to your laptop or mobile devices that either have WiMAX built in or can take the WiMAX dongle.

This is something I got to experience first-hand last week. It’s awesome! I’ll share more videos and photos in the coming days.