802.20. Intel could be closing the door on the emerging 802.20 mobile broadband wireless access standard after the company admitted to uncertainty surrounding the working group's ability to put aside self-interest.

IEEE 80220
The standard, IEEE P80220, "standard air interface for mobile broadband wireless access systems supporting vehicular mobility - physical and media access control layer specification," will seek to boost real-time data transmission rates in wireless metropolitan area networks from the dial-up rates of today's cellular phones to a broadband experience of 1 Mbps or more. By providing ubiquitous mobile broadband networking based on cell ranges of up to 15 km or more, the standard will remove barriers for mobile interactive voice, video and data services.

IEEE P802.20 will address MBWA in licensed bands below 3.5 GHz. It will optimize airwave use for mobility and allow for many more simultaneous users than existing mobile systems now accommodate.

The goal is to bring a true broadband experience to wireless users, in so doing, they hope to make MBWA a viable option for transferring large amounts of data in real time via the Internet, intranets and enterprise systems to mobile users within metropolitan area networks.

The standard will target sustained spectral efficiencies of more than 1 bit/second/Hz/cell, which is more than double that of today's systems. It will promote fully QoS-enabled airlinks having high spectral efficiency and low latency, giving users a high-speed wireless data experience equivalent in quality to wired links.