UK broadband company Pipex Communications says the latest trial of a new mobile high-speed internet access product had exceeded expectations.
A joint venture between Pipex and US chip maker Intel Corporastion has been running tests of a wireless broadband network using WiMax technology, with a view to launching services in several major UK metropolitan areas in 2007.
Pipex said that the trials had delivered download speeds of over two Megabits per second on an indoor computer some 1.2 kilometers away from a WiMax base station - a performance comparable to typical fixed-line broadband access.
However, using an external antenna increased that speed to as much as 10 megabits per second at a similar distance from the base station, the company added.
Longer range tests with external antennae have achieved 6 megabits per second at a six kilometer range, it said.
Mike Read, chief executive of Pipex, said the next phase of the WiMax trial would involve a number of local authorities and live customers.
