WiMAX World: Huawei, NextWave hook up for WiMAX testing

CHICAGO — Huawei and NextWave said today that they are conducting interoperability trials of Huawei’s base station gear and NextWave’s WiMAX terminal chipsets. While interop testing deals are common in the WiMAX sector, the tie-up between Huawei and NextWave may have greater consequences due to NextWave’s unique business model.

Both Huawei and NextWave are mavericks of sorts in wireless. Huawei is the Chinese upstart that arrived as a force just a few years ago, tossing massive engineering resources and low-cost Chinese labor at the established 2G and 3G cellular industries — and in the process winning dozens of major contracts for infrastructure and handsets worldwide.

Meanwhile NextWave is reinvented itself as a wireless broadband technology company after emerging from its controversial bankruptcy in 2005. It used the proceeds from the sale of its contested PCS licenses to buy up companies specializing in WiMAX, Wi-Fi and other technologies — the latest of which was IPWireless in April. It also used that capital to buy spectrum in the advanced wireless services (AWS) auction, reviving the possibility of its decade-old plan of becoming a wireless carrier.

NextWave, however, has fine-tuned its wireless ambitions, deciding to become a sort of quasi-carrier that can use its spectrum as a bargaining chip to promote its technology. NextWave has proposed leasing its spectrum out to operators deploying its infrastructure in particular markets. Though today’s interop partnership doesn’t necessarily wrap Huawei up in NextWave’s business model, it could mean a commitment from a major player in wireless to support NextWave’s unique technology plans, including the development of a base station platform that supports the 1.9 GHz/2.1 GHz bands of NextWave’s AWS licenses.