Wireless Broadband Communications in Rural and Remote Areas - a WiMAX Solution?

In this contribution, the communication aspects for delivering broadband services to remote communities and rural regions are investigated. A short description of the targeted rural areas in underdeveloped regions is given. Next, it has been investigated which telecommunication technologies, such as satellite, 3G cellular systems, wireless LAN or proprietary systems, can support those services. Hereto a technology comparison has been made. Finally, the very promising communication standard WIMAX is studied as a technology for business models to deploy successfully broadband services into rural and marginal communities. It will be shown that using UHF frequencies WiMAX based systems will be able to play the key role in ensuring broadband communications in rural and remote regions.