Forum calls for increased collaboration on WiMAX globally

Huawei, a provider of next-generation telecommunications network solutions for operators around the world, along with WiMAX industry partners Clearwire, Intel and the WiMAX Forum, outlined an agenda that explored opportunities for the future of WiMAX at the 2010 Global WiMAX Business Development Forum this week.

Participants believe the future of WiMAX is tied to its increasing capacity to offer across-the-board interoperability that helps lower costs, broaden bandwidth and enable highly flexible deployment. WiMAX’s ability to deliver high-quality data speeds, fast transmission and abundant services is largely enabled by the adoption of advanced, future-oriented technologies, such as 4T4R (4 transmitters and 4 receivers), MIMO (multi-input multi-output), and Beamforming, all available commercially from Huawei.

To reach the next level for the WiMAX industry,  Tang Xinhong, President of WiMAX, Huawei, called for increased collaboration across the industry. “If the challenges of WiMAX development, such as standardisation, technology, industry maturity, commercialisation and spectrum, can be addressed one by one, undoubtedly the development of WiMAX will be accelerated. Only in collaboration with our partners can we speed the evolution of WiMAX.”

Clearwire is the world’s largest WiMAX operator, with its commercial network covering approximately
41 million people today in the United States. Its 4G networks provisioned by Huawei in Hawaii and Seattle are the world’s first to adopt 4T4R MIMO technology, and can be upgraded to Beamforming through software upgrades. The Huawei  multi-carrier technology and fourth-generation base station platform has enabled Clearwire to significantly reduce expansion costs in the future.

"Huawei is a global leader in wireless technology, so having it as one of the primary members of the WiMAX 2 Collaborative Initiative is a clear signal that the continued evolution of 4G broadband wireless technology is on track," said Pouya Taaghol, CTO, Mobile Wireless Group, Intel.

Huawei has successfully delivered what is claimed to be the world’s first commercial deployment of beamforming technology for the vividwireless WIMAX network. Since vividwireless launched its first WiMAX network in Perth, Huawei has now enabled beamforming across the network - offering higher speeds and a more consistent wireless broadband experience regardless of a user’s distance from a cell site.