WiMAX technology is on center stage this week in Canada and Spain.
Application demos for Xbox wireless console gaming over WiMAX-to-WiMAX based streaming media are taking place at the WiMAX Forum quarterly members meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Meanwhile in Malaga, Spain, the WiMAX Forum Certification test lab at Cetecom has opened and is testing some of the same equipment that’s in use at the members meeting in Canada. The first WiMAX Forum-certified interoperable products are expected to be available by November or December.
“We are excited by the opportunity to show off the capabilities of WiMAX technology in Vancouver and prove that WiMAX is real,” said Ron Resnick, president of the WiMAX Forum. “At the same time, the fact that much of the equipment running successfully in Canada is the same equipment going through certification in Spain is extremely encouraging and bodes well for the future of WiMAX and the advent of true personal broadband.”
More than 400 participants from WiMAX Forum member companies are attending the event in Vancouver, with keynote speakers from Nortel and Korea Telecom. Also at the forum, demonstrations from Nortel, Microsoft, Disney, Logitech, Cisco, AT&T, AudioCodes, Kencast, Ixia and Skype are running on a variety of WiMAX technology vendor systems from companies including Alvarion, Proxim, Redline and Wavesat. The demos represent five key WiMAX application types: Voice over Internet Protocol, streaming media, interactive gaming, Web browsing and file transfer/media download. The successful demos indicate that WiMAX systems are efficient at running simultaneously multiple classes of applications.
Nortel is a leading sponsor of the Vancouver event and is providing wired and wireless local area network connections and IP phones to attendees. The company also presented its findings on the business potential of 802.16r in a speech July 12.
“Participating in the WiMAX Forum event in Vancouver is an ideal opportunity to share our knowledge and expertise of advanced wireless broadband technology with leading business organizations from across the globe,” said John Hoadley, vice president of next generation wireless access at Nortel. “The successful demonstrations at the WIMAX Forum event further exemplify the strength and viability of this technology and its role in the future evolution of wireless broadband networks.”
Korea Telecom, another leading event supporter, spoke of its vision for wireless broadband service and mobile WiMAX, WiBRO, during a keynote speech. Korea Telecom is a leading service provider in Korea and has committed resources toward developing services and applications that support mobile WiMAX/WiBRO implementations.
“KT is committed to the mobile future of WiMAX technology, not just in Korea, but all over the world,” said Dr. Hong, Won-Pyo of Korea Telecom’s Mobile Internet Business Group. “The WiMAX Forum event in Vancouver gave us an ideal opportunity to offer our insight on the advances in mobile WiMAX and the business case for the technology, enabling us to drive greater understanding of the goals of mobile WiMAX and helping us to increase interest in the success of the technology.”
