Las Vegas
– The selection of WiMAX-equipped personal Wi-Fi hot spots is growing with the
introduction by
of the battery-operated R536 WiMAX Wave II, due in May through Franklin
Wireless and carriers.
The San Diego-based company brought the WiMAX-only Wave II to
CTIA Wireless 2010 here, where the device joined the currently available 3G/4G
from Sprint and Clear’s
. The latter device is a portable Wi-Fi router that accepts an optional
WiMAX USB modem or a WiMAX/CDMA modem.
The 2.5GHz-band Wave II weighs about 2.46 ounces, features 802.11b/g
Wi-Fi, and supports the Windows, Macintosh and Linux operating systems. It
comes with replaceable, rechargeable lithium-ion battery and a Web-based user
interface to set up the device.
Details on pricing and distribution were unavailable.
Franklin
is a maker of cellular USB modems and PC cards and embedded cellular modules.