Wifi Revolution

Despite much excitement surrounding mobile WiMAX, widespread adoption of the technology still hasn’t taken place because a single standard has not yet been adopted, Yankee Group said in a recent report.

 

Yankee Group (News - Alert) predicted that adoption will continue to be problematic until 2008, which is when the research firm says a mobile WiMAX standard will become reality.

 

The firm stressed the important of a mobile WiMAX standard, despite the availability in the market today of some proprietary WiMAX products.

 

“Standards are critical for ensuring vendor interoperability and certifying devices,” Yankee Group analyst Tara Howard said in a statement. Howard added that “it is also important to educate service providers and potential customers on the actual timeline for standardized products to help avoid a burnout.”

 

Yankee Group added in its report: “True mobile WiMAX is waiting on WiMAX Forum’s seal of approval to make it a reality.”

 

Wikipedia’s entry for WiMAX (which stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access), quotes the Orgnization for Economic Co-operation and Development as explaining that “"WiMAX is not a technology, but rather a certification mark, or ‘stamp of approval’ given to equipment that meets certain conformity and interoperability tests for the IEEE (News - Alert) 802.16 family of standards.”

 

WiMAX Forum, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting interoperability among devices using mobile wireless technology, defines WiMAX as “a standards-based technology enabling the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to wired broadband like cable and DSL.” The organization’s goals for 2006 include developing “WiMAX profiles based upon an IEEE 802.16 and ETSI interoperable client serving the global market.”

 

The current IEEE standard involved here is 802.16e (sometimes referred to as 802.16-2005 because it was ratified during that year)—also known as Mobile WirelessLAN.

 

In its report, Yankee Group predicts that in the future, more devices and applications will be developed using 802.16e-based technology, but that “wireline operators will want to wait for the full spectrum of capabilities before investing in WiMAX.”

 

A crucial challenge task for vendors, Yankee Group added, is clarifying who the technology benefits and why service providers should invest in it.

 

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