Ratification is looming for a WiMAX specification standard, and trials, products and opinions are rampant.
The worldwide WiMAX market is expected to reach $3.5 billion and account for 4 percent of all broadband usage by 2010, according to a new report from idate.
Growth should be driven by new equipment and an increasing number of WiMAX trials and deployments, said the firm. The report went on to point out that WiMAX is attracting a variety of leading equipment manufacturers and many are forming strategic partnerships.
Indeed, Navini Networks Inc. said it’s working with British Telecommunications plc on mobile WiMAX trials for the U.K. market and expects the trials to continue into the first quarter of 2006.
“This is an opportunity for BT to explore the commercial viability and customer experience of wireless broadband in both rural and urban settings in the U.K.,” said Roger Dorf, president and chief executive of Navini Networks. “Navini offers a unique and proven portable wireless broadband network solution that provides NLOS (non-line of sight) coverage and easy plug-and-play activation, with a seamless upgrade path to 802.16e.”
U.S. telecom carrier BellSouth Corp., which holds a stake in the nation’s largest mobile carrier, Cingular Wireless L.L.C., also is in trials with Navini’s broadband wireless access systems.
“Navini’s systems are already successfully delivering portable wireless broadband around the world with key deployments in Europe, Australia, Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Americas,” said Dorf.
Products certified by the WiMAX Forum won’t be hard to find, as vendors are poised for rollouts.
Airspan Networks, Aperto Networks, Proxim, Sequans and Wavesat all delivered their respective WiMAX solutions to Cetecom Labs in Malaga, Spain, in August for WiMAX conformance and interoperability testing, which should result in their products being tagged “WiMAX Forum Certified” for IEEE 802.16-2004. The certification ought to give suppliers and their vendors the ability to deploy the products with no standard-conformance worries.
“The imminent WiMAX certification for the first wave of WiMAX products is an important achievement for the WiMAX industry,” said Adlane Fellah, senior analyst with Maravedis. “Those WiMAX vendors who have plenty of WiMAX Forum Certified products ready for shipment will be rewarded with a first-to-market advantage.”
In addition, the standards-based products are expected to lower the costs of products, which should help increase market demand for WiMAX gear around the globe.
“The certification and rollout of the first WiMAX Forum Certified products will capture the attention of existing and soon-to-be wireless broadband operators and service providers,” said Lindsay Schroth, senior analyst with Yankee Group. “This milestone is likely to help accelerate the buying decisions of a number of fence-sitters.”
But WiMAX has its detractors who point to problems with spectrum.
The idate report said that delays in allocations and licensing by worldwide regulatory agencies, coupled with a lack of a common worldwide frequency band for WiMAX, could slow deployments.
Carriers without adequate spectrum will be forced to use unlicensed frequencies where there is often congestion and quality failings.
Among U.S. carriers, Sprint Nextel Corp. is sitting the prettiest. Having 90 megahertz of 2.5 GHz licensed spectrum covering about 80 percent of the population, and already exploring different technology solutions, Sprint Nextel has a healthy chance at offering WiMAX-based services on a large scale. RCR
