WiMAX Comes to Two Dell Laptops in the United States

Recently, we began offering WiMAX as an option on three two laptops that we sell to consumers in the United States:

Correction: The correct details are that we are offering WiMAX as an option on two laptops, not three like I originally had stated. I should not have included the Studio 15. My apologies for any inconvenience.

WiMAX is a wireless technology that’s built to deliver wireless broadband for notebooks and mobile devices. The biggest benefit compared to Wi-Fi is range. WiMAX can provide access over much further distances comparatively. We’re working with Clearwire to provide WiMAX service to customers in the United States. Currently, WiMAX is supported in areas within two states: Portand or Atlanta (Update from Lionel: Doh! Neither Portland or Atlanta's a state) and areas within the city Baltimore. Click on those links to check if WiMAX is supported there. Clearwire also has plans to expand to several more cities throughout 2009 and beyond.

Once it’s available in more cities, you won’t have to spend time looking for hotspots. Compared to mobile broadband, WiMAX offers flexible service offerings. You can get a day pass or go month-to-month with no long-term contracts required. WiMAX is fast too—it offers peak download rates of  about 13Mbps and up to 3Mbps upload speeds. Beyond that, our internal WiMAX options all support 802.11n. For more background on how WiMAX technology works, take a look at this Intel demo video

US customers who order a Studio 15, 17 or Studio XPS 16 will see a WiMAX/ Wireless-N combo card option for a $60 upgrade price from the 802.11g default wireless option. Click on the screenshot below to see a larger version.

WiMAX on Dell.com 

WiMAX is not the only option for future connectivity. We're also looking at a technology called Long Term Evolution (or LTE). Expect to read more about these technologies in the future. Either way, we're going to have more wireless options for customers moving forward.

About the Author: Lionel Menchaca