ESPOO, Finland-Nokia Corp. announced it will team with chipmaker Intel Corp. to promote mobile WiMAX technology. The companies said they would work with the IEEE standards group to complete the 802.16e standard, and would develop mobile WiMAX devices and base stations.
“Nokia’s end-to-end multiradio strategy covers many wireless technologies optimized for uses from local connectivity and fast data transport, to broadcasting technologies and full mobility of voice and data,” said Tero Ojanpera, Nokia’s senior vice president and chief strategy officer. “WiMAX will be an important technology complementing 3GPP and 3GPP2 technologies. It will also create new opportunities for the consumer and enterprise markets.”
Intel lately has been working to promote the WiMAX industry, much as it did with the Wi-Fi market. Intel is pushing both the fixed and mobile versions of WiMAX technology. The WiMAX Forum is expected to begin certifying fixed products soon, and the mobile standard is expected to be completed later this year.
Nokia said it will work within the mobile WiMAX world and explained that the technology can sit alongside technologies including W-CDMA and High-Speed Downlink Packet Access.
“Nokia’s rich portfolio of wireless connectivity offers an attractive broadband wireless solution for any operator and any consumer,” said Pertti Korhonen, Nokia’s senior vice president and chief technology officer. “WiMAX complements the mainstream 3GPP evolution.”
Alcatel, LG Electronics, ZTE and Siemens have also announced intentions to play in WiMAX.
Nokia is promoting WiMAX along with W-CDMA, HSDPA, HSUPA and Internet-HSPA. Nokia said HSDPA will offer downlink speeds of up to 14.4 megabits per second and HSUPA uplink speeds of up to 5.7 Mbps. Internet-HSPA is based on the 3GPP standard and features a simplified network architecture, the company said.
Interestingly, Nokia said it is also committed to developing UTRAN LTE (Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network Long Term Evolution), which it described as 3.9G or Super 3G. Nokia said the 3GPP will finalize UTRAN LTE in mid-2007, and the technology will offer 100 Mbps in the downlink and 50 Mbps in the uplink.
