WiBro/Mobile WiMAX exchange begins

While the WiMAX Forum is conducting programs to certify product interoperability for the WiMAX standard, the hunt continues for the right carrier business models and the practical approaches for managing interoperability between different service providers.

A new carrier-led industry group, the WiBro and Mobile WiMAX Community (WMC), has formed to address the everyday operational issues that operators deploying these similar technologies are likely to confront. Korea Telecom, the South Korean service provider leading the charge to deploy WiBro, is among the founding members of the WMC, along with U.S.-based Covad Communications, Japan's NTT, China's PCCW and TeleKom Malaysia Berhad.

Alan Howe, vice president of strategic and wireless development for Covad, said the new effort will complement the ongoing work of the WiMAX Forum, in which Covad and several WMC members remain active.

“The WMC will be more focused on the business models, practice and experience of different carriers from different markets,” he said. “In the WiMAX Forum, we're in the weeds working through the technology issues. The WiMAX Forum is dominated by vendors, and the WMC is dominated by carriers. It's a place where we can share real business information.”

Howe said the WMC will spend the next six months or so outlining the scope of its mission. In the long term, he expects the WMC to be involved in some level of interoperability testing. WiBro, the Korean broadband wireless standard, pre-dates the Mobile WiMAX effort, but both use specific elements of IEEE 802.16e. Also, in the WiMAX Forum's efforts, 2.3 GHz WiBro is a profile within the Mobile WiMAX certification program. Howe said working with non-Korean carriers in the WMC will help KT broaden the appeal of WiBro and cement the relationship between the technologies.