WiMax is a technology that, like Wi-Fi, allows wireless communication between devices through electromagnetic waves. WiMax offers similar performance to Wi-Fi, but allows for greater coverage and quality of service, achieving a theoretical range of up to 50 Km for wireless access from a fixed location and around 15 Km for mobility access. WiMax technology is used by some operators to provide Internet access, mainly in areas where there is no access through traditional networks of copper, cable or fiber optic pairs.
The maximum speed and range of WiMax connections depend on the version of the standard used according to the IEEE 802.16 family of standards. The latest version, known as IEEE 802.16m or WiMax Release 2.0, allows theoretical speeds of up to 1 Gbit/s for users in a fixed location and 365 Mbit/s for users in mobility, capabilities that place WiMax technologies as one of the families of 4G technologies. It should be noted that these speeds are theoretical maximums and that the actual speed depends on the number of users simultaneously connected to the same access point and other factors, which make the download speeds in practice tend to be lower than the theoretical maximums.