wimax countdown begins

JUNE’S SUPERCOMM 2005 EVENT WAS A timely precursor to the opening of the WiMAX Forum’s testing facility in Spain this month. Vendors announced WiMAX-ready products as well as their plans for certifying such equipment at the Cetecom lab. Meanwhile, installs of pre-WIMAX systems are continuing unabated — including a high-profile announcement from BellSouth Corp.

BellSouth announced at SUPERCOMM it will deploy wireless broadband service to select areas of Athens, Ga., next month and in several Florida cities later in the year. The new BellSouth FastAccess Internet Service will provide Internet access to customers at broadband speeds. BellSouth is using Navini Networks Inc.’s pre-WiMAX Ripwave equipment for the deployment. BellSouth has been conducting technical trials using Navini’s system in Daytona and Palatka, Fla. Navini powers more than 30 commercial networks on six continents.

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Meanwhile, Navini competitor Aperto Networks Inc.’s pre-WiMAX PacketWave system is installed with more than 200 operators in 60 countries. At SUPERCOMM, it announced U.S. Wireless Online Inc., which owns and operates a 3,000-square-mile network, will deploy PacketWave and, eventually, Aperto’s WiMAX solution set, PacketMAX, which also was announced at the Chicago trade show. Aperto expects PacketMAX to be among the first wave of equipment evaluated for certification and interoperability under the 802.16-2004 specification.

PacketMAX includes three base stations, six CPE variations and the WaveMAX element management system that can be used to deliver either business or residential services. Initial systems will support 3.5GHz, which is the most widely utilized frequency in the world, although not authorized for WiMAX and similar systems in the United States. However, PacketMAX also is designed to support 3.3GHz to 3.8GHz, 2.3GHz to 2.7GHz and 5.4GHz to 5.9GHz ranges.

Reza Ahy, CEO of Aperto Networks, says trials of the flagship PacketMax5000 will begin this summer with product rollout planned for fall. Consumer CPE based on Intel’s WiMAX chip and business CPE based on Fujitsu Microelectronic America Inc.’s WiMAX system-on-a-chip (SoC) will be used in the market trials and rollout in fall. Ahy says general availability likely will be timed to follow receipt of certification from the WiMAX Forum.

Mohammad Shakouri, vice president and board member of the WiMAX Forum, says multiple vendors in addition to Aperto have paid the $10,000 fee to test their 3.5GHz WiMAX equipment, beginning July 1. After a validation period of two to three months, the forum expects performance and interoperability tests to begin and certified product to hit the market shortly thereafter in the November/December timeframe. Testing for 5.8GHz product will begin later in 2005 or early 2006, he says.

Redline Communications also expects to be in the first wave of certified WiMAX gear with its RedMAX product line, says Keith Doucet, vice president of marketing and product management for Redline. At SUPERCOMM, Redline conducted the first live over-the-air demonstration of equipment compliant to the 802.16-2004 standard. Live video was transmitted from two downtown Chicago locations, including TowerStream Corp.’s PoP in the AON Tower, to the IBM Global Services booth in McCormick Place convention center.

Significantly, Redline’s own ASICs were used in its base station while the subscriber units incorporated the Intel PRO/Wireless 5116 (SoC).

Not all WiMAX vendors will be rushing toward certification, however. Carlton O’Neal, vice president of marketing for Alvarion Inc., the North American unit of Alvarion Ltd., says the company’s BreezeMAX 3500, which operates in the 3.5GHz band, will be the first of its equipment to be tested. However, he says, Alvarion has not registered to certify its equipment when the WiMAX Forum opens its labs this summer. “We will do it as it is demanded by the customers,” he says. “No one has asked for it.”

Alvarion announced at SUPERCOMM 2005 the extension of its BreezeMAX products to include support for licensed spectrum in the United States. BreezeMAX 2300 systems for Wireless Communications Services (2.3GHz) will be available in field trials at the end of the year with BreezeMAX 2500 for Broadband Radio Services (2.5GHz to 2.7GHz) trials to follow. The BreezeMAX 2300 and 2500 products use custom ASICs in the base station. The CPE will use Intel’s WiMAX chipset.

Motorola Inc. also is skipping the certification for 802.16-2004, says Tom Hulsebosch, director of Motorola Canopy sales and marketing. He says Motorola Canopy will go right into 802.16e and expects to have a commercially available mobile WiMAX system in the first half of 2006. “If you go out with 2004, you are stuck with it unless you can overlay with more spectrum. Migration is a mess,” he says. “We hope to be one of the first with 802.16e.”

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