WiMAX may be one technology, but the players involved with it are issuing a number of discordant notes.
While some news outlets published reports last week that the certification date had been postponed from this month to July, and that therefore a WiMAX standard would be further delayed, the WiMAX Forum was quick to issue a rebuttal.
“Some people are confusing commercial launch with testing,” said Mo Shakouri, vice president and board member of the WiMAX Forum. Implying much ado about nothing, Shakouri said the January timeframe was the target timeframe for certification testing when the forum initially came into being a couple of years ago. But by the middle of last year, the forum decided that testing would happen this July.
The brouhaha over the July date likely comes from some WiMAX proponents that have more to time to develop their non-standardized products as long as the standard continues to be hammered out.
Progress is being made, Shakouri said, noting the forum has chosen a lab, Cetecom in Spain, to conduct its work. While Cetecom will serve as headquarters, regional labs around the world will support the efforts in Spain. “The goal is to have the lab up and running for certification in July this year,” said Shakouri.
While some players and watchers said the reports of delay are valid, others disagreed.
“2005 was thought to be the year of the WiMAX launch,” commented Vincent Poulbere, senior consultant with analyst firm Ovum. “Unfortunately, it will now mostly be the year of pre-WiMAX.”
Intel Corp. didn’t see the July date as a postponement of WiMAX technology, said spokeswoman Amy Martin, adding the company was surprised by the news reports.
But the main issue here, according to analysts, arises from companies happy with putting off certification because of a slew of pre-WiMAX products on the market. Certification could take away their market share and returns on investments.
Maravedis analyst Adlane Fellah referred to what industry calls WiMAX-like or WiMAX-type products on the market. He said many of the companies are wary of interoperability because their products do match the specifications of others, although they meet what may be WiMAX requirements in terms of bytes and distance.
He said some of the big players like Alvarion, Proxim and SR Telecom may not have the patience for WiMAX Forum’s timetable since they are already hurting on the stock exchange.
“Vendors will continue to sell pre-standard products to the few operators having already made a decision to deploy early, but operators waiting for standardized equipment will have to wait, and this will slow the market as a whole,” said Ovum’s Poulbere.
