WIMAX FORUM SEES CERTIFICATION AS KEY
With WiMax potentially at the breakthrough point, the WiMax Forum is putting much of its emphasis on establishing a certification program for products, similar to a good housekeeping seal of approval, officials said. As carriers start to launch WiMax services, the forum is gently reminding the public that so far no products have been certified.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
Despite the growing interest, forum-certified products won’t be available for nearly a year, Ronald Resnick of Intel, chmn. of the forum, said in a recent interview: “One of our challenges now is to mitigate the hype of companies saying, ‘We have WiMax products shipping today’ when there really aren’t any… WiMax products will start shipping when they're ready, which is at the earliest early ‘05.”
“There are trials with WiMax, but there really aren’t,” Resnick added: “Up until the products are certified they're all effectively pre-standard or proprietary products. There are companies that are claiming they'll have products that are upgradable to WiMax [standards] and that’s good. I don’t think this is a big problem if it’s managed right.”
The buzz on WiMax keeps growing. Last summer, after the IEEE approved the 802.16 wireless metropolitan area network standard, Intel called the development “the most important thing since the Internet itself.” The standard provides for up to 31 miles of linear service area range and allows connectivity without direct line of sight to a base station. Data rates up to 70 Mbps are possible.
Resnick said he held a meeting on WiMax at this year’s Wireless Communications Assn. show 2 weeks ago that drew strong interest. For the first time carriers and not just equipment manufacturers are becoming very involved. “The room was packed,” he said: “British Telecom was there. France Telecom. What was very interesting is that the carriers today, as opposed to 6 to 12 months ago, are getting much more enamored with what broadband is going to do for them. They're realizing that they need to test, deploy, trial products. If not, the challenges to their businesses may catch them where they're not prepared to respond.”
Resnick said its further evidence that WiMax “is going to be huge” that international giants Siemens and Alcatel recently joined the forum: “These huge companies, that last year were more wait-and-see, dived in in a big way.” Some analysts believe that mobile WiMax won’t take off until 2009 or later. Gartner said in a recent research report it will be at least 5 years before WiMax delivers mobile wireless broadband.
Intel has said it plans to start installing WiMax cards in computers and PDAs in 2006, Resnick said. He expects applications providing fixed WiMax with outside receivers to go on the market in early 2005. Fixed versions installed indoors with no need for a truck roll will follow in late 2005. At the same time, prices will decline. While the first equipment costs will be as high as $400, “nobody is going to buy a network card for more than $100. Ultimately prices will go to very little because [the cards] will be built into the systems.”
The forum established a regulatory working group in early June. Resnick said a major goal of the forum is getting the FCC to open more spectrum for use by WiMax and other advanced services. “We're limited to 2.5 GHz in the U.S. for broadband access,” he said: “We really need 700 MHz. If there’s a way to accelerate the analog stations getting off [700 MHz] that would really help.”