Intel brings WiMAX to Amazon island city

It’s wireless for the jungle crowd.

Intel has announced a successful trial of a WiMAX tower on an island in the Amazon Basin, bringing broadband to an area previously powered by dial-up.

It’s not as remote as it sounds: The tower powers Internet connections to Parintins, a Brazilian city of 114,000. The broadband network provides a wireless conduit for a hospital, community center, university, and two other schools.

Succeeding where previous efforts had failed, Intel managed to get the WiMAX tower and the network set up, bringing wireless facilities to 1,500 students and up to 10,000 other citizens or Parintins and the surrounding area.

WiMAX, of course, is being touted as a better alternative to Wi-Fi, especially in areas like the Amazon, which are naturally resistant to vast distances and underground cables.