The WiMAX Forum has announced the first 10 Mobile WiMAX products (the 2.5 GHz profile, titled MP05) to receive its Certified Seal of Approval.
The WiMAX Forum also revealed its roadmap for 3.5 and 2.3 GHz equipment certification, with plans for equipment in the 3.5 GHz band to achieve certification by the end of 2008.
The approved products included four base stations and six mobile station modules (aka terminals) from eight member companies.
Alvarion, Motorola, Samsung Electronics and Sequans Communications each received Seals of Approval for 2.5 GHz base stations. Airspan Networks, Beceem Communications, Intel, Samsung Electronics, Sequans Communications and ZyXEL each received the nod for 2.5 GHz mobile station modules.
All of the newly certified 2.5 GHz mobile station modules passed the mandatory MIMO testing protocols.
Ron Resnick, president of the WiMAX Forum, said, “With the successful completion of extensive 2.5 GHz testing, we’ve laid the groundwork to speed up additional profile certifications and ultimately to continue advancing global WiMAX deployments at a record pace.”
The WiMAX Forum estimates that more than 100 Mobile WiMAX products will be certified by the end of 2008, and by 2011 more than 1,000 products will undergo Mobile WiMAX certification.
Meanwhile, the WiMAX Forum will begin to accept certification applications for 3.5 GHz equipment during Q3 2008, with testing to begin in Q4 2008 and certification completed for those products before the end of the year.
The 3.5 GHz band includes the validation and certification of three profiles based on channel bandwidths of 5, 7 and 10 MHz. The WiMAX Forum also plans in 2008 to accelerate the building of certification infrastructure for 2.3 GHz products (5 MHz and 10 MHz channels), in order to drive certification of 2.3 GHz products as soon as possible.
The WiMAX Forum Subscriber and User Forecast Study projects that by 2012 there will be more than 133 million WiMAX users globally, and approximately 70 percent of forecasted WiMAX users will utilize mobile and portable WiMAX devices to access broadband Internet services.
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