WiMAX Forum plans to enhance technology by 50%

The WiMax Forum, an industry body representing companies and vendors offering high-speed data services on the wireless platform, said it has launched an initiative to enhance this technology by more than 50%. The announcement comes just a day before India kicks off the auctions for third generation (3G) and broadband wireless access spectrum. Certified products and networks using the new improved WiMAX technologies are expected in late 2010, the industry body said. “The demand for advanced high-speed broadband is tremendous in India. As a result, the operators are already offering various data transfer applications to users. The certified products for the next generation WiMAX will be available by the year end, around the time operators start commercial operation,” WiMAX Forum chairman CS Rao said. The forum has also fast tracked the process of profiling and certification for WiMAX 2 products, which can provide speed of up to 300 Mbps compared to 40 Mbps offered by the current version. “WiMAX is a ready to be used platform. The cost of WiMAX devices have also come down and it is more suited for India,” Mr Rao added. The WiMAX Forum’s announcements come even as the upcoming broadband spectrum auctions have set off an intense battle between two advanced wireless technologies — WiMAX and LTE. The Indian government will auction two slots of 20 MHz for broadband wireless services, but has not specified the technology that has to be deployed on the bands. The GSM association representing telcos on this technology platform, across the globe, has been lobbying for the adoption of TDLTE (time division-long term evolution). “India is currently offering 20 MHz of spectrum for future mobile broadband roll out. This can cause severe interference problems for WiMAX technology. While TD-LTE has a far greater tolerance to interference and is therefore far better suited to the needs of the Indian population,” GSM Association’s senior director Jaikishan Rajaraman said, in a statement. TD-LTE, like WiMAX, is also a fourth generation mobile technology providing a peak download speed of 100 Mbps on mobile phones, compared with 20 Mbps for 3G. “In terms of scale, China Mobile alone could potentially have more live TD-LTE connections than what WiMAX could achieve globally,” Mr Rajaraman said. But, the WiMAX equipment makers argue that TD-LTE is a new technology and its devices are about 5 times more expensive. “WiMax has been in the market for long and constant developments have driven down the prices, which has not happened with TD-LTE,” Motorola India country head — mobility services Subhendu Mohanty said. Huawei also said the demand in India is currently for WiMAX, but added that when the market was ready for TDLTE, it would deploy that platform, too. In India, state-owned operator BSNL has already deployed about 1,800 WiMAX base stations across Punjab and Kerala and is in the process of deploying more under its rural WiMAX project. Earlier this week, Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson had adviced telcos against adopting WiMAX technology due to spectrumrelated issues.