Mobile WiMAX: The evolution begins

Still, for many service providers and vendors, Mobile WiMAX seems worth waiting for, to the degree that several service providers, such as BellSouth, are only recently taking a more active interest in the WiMAX Forum's Mobile WiMAX certification efforts just as they are starting to heat up. Likewise, although several of the major equipment vendors opted to pass on the Fixed WiMAX opportunity, they are now assembling their strategies in order to attack the Mobile WiMAX opportunity.

“There has been some waiting on the sidelines with Fixed WiMAX, but all the big iron vendors will have some way of addressing Mobile WiMAX,” O'Neal said. “Some will have their own systems, and some will have OEM arrangements with other vendors.” This also could drive some consolidation in the vendor community during the product development phase of WiMAX, many people believe.

The product development and pre-commercial phase for Mobile WiMAX is expected to extend for the rest of this year, with product certification at the WiMAX Forum expected to happen late this year and early next. The forum recently chose TTA, an independent lab in South Korea as it first certification testing house for Mobile WiMAX profiles. The testing plan is still being worked out, but sources from WiMAX Forum member companies said there are likely to be two initial phases for Mobile WiMAX certification testing.

The first phase most likely will address gear in the 2.3 GHz spectrum band, the frequency that is being used for WiBro in South Korea and which also is being targeted for usage in several other countries. In the U.S., BellSouth owns a healthy stock of 2.3 GHz licenses. Many equipment vendors and carriers said they believe that the 2.5 GHz frequency, which is owned in the U.S by Sprint Nextel, Clearwire, BellSouth and others, would be next. The 2.5 GHz spectrum in some countries had been barred from being used for a service with mobility — something which many people blame the proponents of GSM mobile service — but those restrictions are now being lifted.

“There is a significant demand for 802.16e-based systems already, even though Mobile WiMAX trials really haven't gotten started yet,” said Paul Sergeant, senior marketing manager of alternative access for Motorola. “The 802.16e chips are only now starting to appear.”

At the same time, the telecom industry is still working on those two other important migrations, the self-service evolution and the IMS evolution. Both will contribute significantly to the success of Mobile WiMAX. Self-installation is fast becoming a must-have capability in broadband wireless access systems. Carriers and vendors want to make it as easy as possible to install to give it a competitive advantage that separates it from earlier generations of residential broadband services. Meanwhile, “IMS will be essential to Mobile WiMAX,” Sergeant said. “It's the glue that takes care of the roaming between different access networks.”

With important telecom technology migrations all coming together at once, the industry really can foresee a time when personal broadband isn't just one kind of broadband, but the only kind. “About 10 years ago, people were asking if mobile telephony really could replace landline,” Sergeant said. “Mobile WiMAx eventually could replace wired broadband — not now, but soon we'll see at least a low penetration of Mobile WiMAX. In 10 years, it will be much bigger, and in 20 years, it could be a complete replacement.”