Wimax or Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access is a non-cellular telecommunications technology, which like 3G has the capability to transfer data wirelessly over long distances.

But while 3G offers speeds in the range of 5.8-14.4 mega bits a second, Wimax has the potential to “deliver 70 mega bits over the same spectrum”, a senior Motorola executive says.

“This technology enables better speeds than the standard 3G and even traditional broadband connections,” Tarvinder Singh, Motorola India’s head of marketing and product management, told reporters.

Incidentally, the Department of Telecom will auction the 2.1 GHz and higher spectrum band – which will support both the technologies – some time this month. And Singh says service providers winning the bids ought to opt for Wimax.

His assertion comes on the heels of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) inducting the Wimax technology as part of its 3G standard, the first non-cellular telecommunication technology to get ITU approval.

Researchers at Nokia-Siemens Networks and Heinrich Hertz Institute have showcased a futuristic 3G technology, the Long Term Evolution or LTE, which has a transfer speed of 100 mega bits per second.

But Singh is unimpressed. “Those who swear allegiance to 3G bank upon its development into LTE, which is still at a development stage and cannot be introduced before 2011 commercially,” he added.

Singh said India couldn’t wait till 2011 to provide Internet access and modern technology to its towns and villages. “We are already lagging behind other nations. Wireless broadband in the form of Wimax can solve the problem of building infrastructure for wired Internet access.”