First Officially Certified WiMAX Gear – SO WHAT !!??

Implications: Why is this event so important? Vendors have been selling WiMAX equipment for years.

Analysis: Certification of any equipment by some authoritative body means that the equipment meets some kind of minimum standard of quality and performance.

In the old days it was Bell Labs that decided what would be installed and what would not be installed.  Then it was Bellcore for landline equipment.  CTIA (Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association) and even for a time PCIA (Personal Communications Industry Association, which had been originally called Telocator) managed the cellular network.

When Wi-Fi came into being I recall the wireless proposal being informally shopped around the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) standards committees.  Frankly, when I first heard of a standard for unlicensed wireless technology I thought one thing:  The cellular carriers would never support such a standards effort because it was in conflict with their licensed properties.  Guess what the discussion died before it even got traction.  The next thing we knew; the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) was working on a project the dubbed 802.11.  My best guess was that vendors like Intel had been looking for some official body of carriers and vendors to promote the technology.  Intel and other vendors had probably been simultaneously shopping the Wi-Fi concept to as many vendors and carriers as possible to get support.  No harm in their actions; in fact that is how telecom technology us promoted and developed in open forums these days.

However, IEEE did not and still does not represent the carriers who happen to have all of the money.  CTIA had no interest in it.  The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) and its standards body Committee T1 did not seem to have any interest in Wi-Fi.  Keep in mind all of this early activity was around the mid-1990s just after the 1994 Personal Communications Services (PCS) Spectrum Auction.  In other words, the carriers were busy deploying digital cellular.

The need for carrier involvement is important from a sales perspective.  The Wi-Fi folks formed an association called the Wi-Fi Alliance.  The group actively works with standards bodies by marketing the technology and by submitting contribution to the standards body.

I believe in standards and support the concept of certification.  A group like the Wi-Fi Alliance or the WiMAX Forum enables vendors to engage the carriers in an open manner.

Getting back to WiMAX certification.  The announcement that the first mobile WiMAX equipment has been certified means that the carriers community can deploy the equipment in their networks and with the assurance that all operating performance criteria have been met.

This is a big step for Sprint.  Theoretically Sprint should be able to go to any WiMAX vendor and see carrier grade equipment ready to be installed.

What does this mean for LTE (long term evolution)?  It means a kick in the head to the LTE gang.  The LTE gang is squabbling over who gets paid while the WiMAX Forum is surging ahead.

WiMAX proponents need to scream long and loud about this accomplishment.  This WiMAX announcement should light a fire under the LTE gang.