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Mobile & Wireless
WiMAX Forum plots for 700 MHz
Organization pledges to prioritize work based on increased market interest
by Jim Barthold
If the multitudes bidding billions of dollars in the ongoing
FCC spectrum auction don’t provide enough evidence that 700
MHz spectrum is a coveted commodity, the WiMAX Forum has
emphasized the point with high priority plans to develop a
700 MHz specification/certification road map.
The Forum, which in the past has assiduously stuck to its
guns that it was developing specifications for accepted
international spectrum like 2.3, 2.5 and 3.5 GHz, has done an
about-face and announced that 700 MHz is a key signpost on
its technology road map.
“The market interest has grown considerably recently to the
point where the board has decided to give it some high
priority and made the announcement today (at Mobile World
Congress in Barcelona) that we’re going to be working hard on
the technical specifications for the band,” said Tim Hewitt,
chairman of the Forum’s regulatory working group.
While the Forum has publicly maintained a low profile about
700 MHz, it “has been keeping an eye on 700 megs for quite
some time,” Hewitt said. “There’s a nine-step process we
have to go through (and) for some time we’ve been doing
this background work on these nine points.”
The next step in the accelerated process is to announce
specifications to support both TDD and FDD certification
profiles, which, in itself is a bit of focus shift because TDD has
previously dominated the organization’s work.
“That was the very strong drive from the market; they wanted
these TDD systems,” Hewitt said.
Now the market, both in the U.S. and overseas, wants the
combination of FDD and TDD to work with 700 MHz spectrum
that’s just becoming available, especially as the FCC auctions
off U.S. spectrum being abandoned by broadcasters moving
to all-digital delivery.
“There’s an equally important and quite exciting thing under
way in the world because the ITU at the recent radio
conference identified what we know as the digital dividend
spectrum, the UHF spectrum that will become available in
many countries when television goes digital,” Hewitt
said. “That’s spectrum near 700 MHz.”
The Forum is also looking at WiMAX from a slightly different
perspective. while previous efforts included fixed or portable
WiMAX based on IEEE 802.16d standards, the profile work
within 700 MHz will be strictly 802.16e and especially mobile.
“There really isn’t a need to go through all the individual
specs. We create the mobile profile and the operators can
use that as they will,” said Hewitt. “I think in the main
operators would either want to use it for mobility or would
want the option in the future to use it for mobility so it makes
sense to go for 802.16e.
While there’s no specific timetable for 700 MHz WiMAX
specifications, Hewitt emphasized they are being pursued with
a sense of urgency because “the market players, the
manufacturers, the operators (are) sending us messages now
that 700 is very important and there’s strong interest in
WiMAX.”
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