Photos: WiMax in action

At the heart of AS.MAX is the MacroMax base station. This one is using DSL supplied by Pipex. 

It contains a Forum-certified 802.16-2004 fixed WiMax chip, although it is soft-upgradeable to the 802.16e mobile WiMax standard.

Lightley highlighted this upgradeability as a key strength for WiMax in its fight against the rise of HSDPA (or next-generation 3G), especially as HSDPA will beat mobile WiMax to the marketplace.

The large size of the base station is due to its built-in power amplifiers.