WiMax rival gets back on track
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(InfoWorld) - The process to standardize a rival to the broadband wireless WiMax technology is back on track although the delay and scandal around it could present a serious set back to the effort. On Tuesday, standards setting body the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) announced changes that would allow the 802.20 working group, suspended in June, to continue to develop the standard. The group will elect all new officers and resume working once a chair is approved, which IEEE hopes will happen by Nov. 12. Participants in the group will also be required to disclose all of their affiliations, including any company that pays, employs or sponsors the member. Some experts warn, however, that the changes could be coming too late. "Whatever the reality behind it, 802.20 is now so heavily associated with Qualcomm that it will not be perceived as an independent standard," said Caroline Gabriel, an analyst with Rethink Research. The IEEE put the new measures in place in hopes of correcting the problems that lead to the suspension of the group in June. At the time, the standards body had received several complaints, including some that accused the independent analyst who served as chairman of 802.20 of being paid by Qualcomm, an accusation he later confirmed. In addition, the IEEE said the group's activities had become unusually contentious. The 802.20 group began as an offshoot of 802.16, the standard that forms the basis of WiMax. The goal of the 802.16 effort initially was to build a fixed broadband wireless technology that would compete with DSL (digital subscriber line) and other wireline technologies. As work progressed, however, 802.16 members decided that in the future, the standard should be capable of supporting mobile or portable access as well. But some of the members didn't want to have to build the mobility feature on top of a standard that was originally created for a fixed application. Consequently, they split off to create 802.20, a mobile broadband wireless standard that could be created from scratch and would be designed to support broadband wireless access for users moving at very high speeds, such as on a train. While 802.16 emphasizes throughput speeds, 802.20 emphasizes supporting access at very fast user mobility. IntelÂ is a major backer of the 802.16 process and ArrayCommÂ and Flarion have been heavily involved in the 802.20 process. Intel competitorÂ Qualcomm acquired FlarionÂ last year. Qualcomm is best known for its development of CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) and strict licensing policies. The process of completing the 802.20 standard was already far behind its 802.16 competitor when the suspension occurred. The specification for the fixed version of 802.16 is finished with products currently shipping and the mobile version of 802.16 was ratified late last year. The 802.20 standard will also have to compete with the developing cellular standards, such as HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access).
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While the debate rages on the economics of deploying and operating WiMax networks, a U.K. start-up is quietly building what it hopes will be the country's first network based on this emerging high-speed broadband wireless technology.
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WiMAX service provider Clearwire went public Thursday and initially met with a positive response from the market.
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A standards group has begun work on a 1-Gigabit-per-second version of WiMax that could replace both cellular and WiMax.
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HP and Global Mobile demonstrated a mobile WiMax station for use in hospitals.
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PicoChip's base station for the 4G mobile standard LTE can also run WiMax.
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Wavesat Inc., a developer of broadband wireless chips, said today it has delivered the first-ever WiMAX chip, the DM256. The company is planning to make the chips generally available early next month.
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Sprint Nextel Corp.  and Clearwire Corp.  said on Thursday they plan to jointly construct a nationwide mobile broadband network in the United States using WiMAX technology, designed to run more than five times faster than current wireless networks at a lower cost.
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Clearwire and Sprint Nextel have made  progress on reaching terms for a roaming deal for their  high-speed wireless networks based on WiMax technology,  Clearwire's Chief Executive said on Wednesday.
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New WiMax partners say they will blanket the U.S. with an open network on the 700MHz band.
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The company teams up with Flarion, which makes a new kind of wireless technology that competes with Wi-Fi and 3G cellular.
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By James Connell  Eric Pfanner contributed reporting from London.   *  WiMax, the long-range wireless Internet standard backed by technology giants like Alcatel-Lucent, Intel, Nokia and Samsung, is unlikely to be appear as a new feature on cellphones anytime soon.
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Even EarthLink is scaling back deployments, some cities and regional networks are pushing forward with plans to build citywide Wi-Fi networks.
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Three companies are set to use the backdrop of the 2008 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to debut a device that can use WiMAX technology to make calls.
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Growth is returning to the global wireless giant.
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More details of Sprint's WiMax initiative at CES, including pledges by several partners and Sprint that the effort is on track.
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Australasian operators set up 'spectrum club' Roaming is one of the critical success factors for any network seeking to be a global standard, and WiMAX is no exception. So far, the main roaming activity has centered on the pre-WiMAX Wi-Bro system, with the formation of the Wi-Bro and Mobile WiMAX Community (WMC) by leading Asian operators plus Covad.â¦