WiMax comes of age

By Damaria Senne for Motorola
Johannesburg, 24 Apr 2008

WiMax has seen a number of developments which should quell sceptics about its ability to deliver services, says Motorola.

According to Noel Kirkaldy, Motorola's director of wireless broadband for the Middle East and Africa, 2008 is an important year for WiMax, when people will see the technology move from being over-hyped theory to reality.

WiMax is here and now, and it operates as a fixed nomadic offering, he said. A number of operators have rolled out networks, more network deployments are in development and manufacturers have developed appropriate handsets for consumers to access services, he says.

The International Telecommunications Union has already approved the WiMax mobile standard (802.16e), providing guidance for regulators around the world to allocate spectrum in the 2.5MHz and 3.5MHz bands, he notes.

However, the WiMax Forum has not yet certified the standard, he adds. The certification of the 802.16e standard for products and devices for the Korean market is already finalised and the process is now under way to certify products and devices for the rest of the world, Kirkaldy says.

Working networks

According to Kirkaldy, Middle Eastern telecommunications giant Zain made its WiMax service available in Bahrain in November 2007. Wateen Telecom also launched its WiMax network in Pakistan, and is said to be the largest WiMax network to date.

Amina Telecoms plans to have its network commercially available this year, while Warid, in Uganda, is in the deployment phase, he notes.

In SA, Telkom has already launched a commercial WiMax offering in areas where it cannot provide ADSL services. Vodacom and Neotel also have strong WiMax plans.

A number of operators also have plans in the works to deploy networks. According to Kirkaldy, more than 1 300 WiMax licences have been issued to telecoms operators.

Tech-ready

Manufacturers have already developed WiMax-appropriate handsets to deliver services to consumers, Kirkaldy points out. Motorola has handsets that are commercially available.

Intel is also putting its weight behind WiMax, says Gilles Karolkowski, Intel's director of WiMax European market development.

The company is imbedding WiMax capability into a range of Centrino laptops, he adds.

Laptops embedded with capability to access WiMax services in the 2.5MHz frequency will be commercially available by the end of the year, explains Karolkowski.

Next year, Intel will release laptops that are enabled for 2.5MHz and 3.5MHz frequencies.

"Over time, Intel will integrate on a piece of silicon all the profiles the industry is looking for," he says.

Kirkaldy urges the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) to accelerate its processes to allocate WiMax spectrum to new players. "Some countries issue numerous licences, but Motorola recommends two or three new licensees only."

ICASA has allocated large chunks of WiMax spectrum to Telkom, Neotel, Sentech and iBurst. The regulator previously noted it had issued 11 test WiMax licences.