Japan Telecom, together with Tohoku University's Research Center for 21st-Century Information Technology (the IT-21 Center) and Flarion Technologies,  announced a trial in Sendai, Japan, of Flarion's technology for seamless roaming and handoff between fixed WiFi access areas and a mobile broadband network using Flarion's FLASH-OFDM technology. The mobile broadband aspect of the trial will use of the 2 GHz frequency band recently given to Japan Telecom by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. The trial is taking place at Tohoku University.

"The technology trial objectives is to verify high-speed Internet access and seamless roaming, as well as mobile-to-fixed handoff with wireless LANs using the IEEE 802.11b/g/a standard and FLASH-OFDM," said Kazuo Tsubouchi of Tohoku University. "Our goal is to help prove the ability of IP-based technologies to work in harmony to help create a seamless broadband experience for people, government and public safety organizations, using fixed and mobile networks."

For more on JT-Flarion trials:
- see this Unstrung report