PARIS-Alcatel Corp. and KT Corp. announced that they plan to work as a team to accelerate the adoption of mobile WiMAX, beginning with the establishment of an interoperability testing center in Seoul.
Alcatel said it plans to provide the radio access and core network elements for the testing center, which will be linked to the KT Research and Development Center to facilitate convergence testing between mobile WiMAX and fixed WiMAX applications.
Although KT is Korea’s largest fixed line operator, the company said it plans to introduce KT Wireless Broadband services in the first half of 2006, enabling users to access the Internet with a mobile WiMAX device at multi-megabit speeds. The company said it plans to attract as many as 4 million users to its WiMAX technology offering.
“Leveraging our synergies, I am confident that both companies will be able to stand at the forefront of the forthcoming mobile broadband access revolution,” said Hong Won-pyo, executive vice president of the Mobile Internet Business Group at KT.
“Alcatel is convinced that mobile WiMAX has enormous potential and our decision to partner with KT will accelerate the introduction of new mobile broadband services in the global marketplace,” said Marc Rouanne, chief operating officer of mobile communications activities at Alcatel.
Earlier this week, the IEEE approved the mobile WiMAX standard, 802.16e-2005, which is often referred to as WiBro in Korea. The WiMAX Forum is set to begin trials and certification testing in early 2006, with certified products expected to hit the market later in the year and services following in early 2007.
