Motorola, a leading industry proponent of the IEEE 802.16e WiMAX standard, unveiled the first of its MOTOwi4 WiMAX solutions at CTIA Wireless 2006. Using a suite of infrastructure and subscriber products, Motorola demonstrated IP telephony over its MOTOwi4 WiMAX platform. Motorola's first MOTOwi4 WiMAX system focuses on delivering low-cost fixed and nomadic services in underserved markets and developing countries, and it uses the 3.5 GHz spectrum available in most countries. The 802.16e WiMAX standard is typically associated with mobility, but it is also a more robust wireless access technology than 802.16-2004 and is thus well suited for fixed deployments. Motorola offers another advantage to operators: By using a common core network, Motorola makes it possible for operators to use a complementary combination of licensed spectrum and unlicensed spectrum to cover new territories with broadband service and IP telephony.

Dan Coombes, senior vice president and general manager of Wireless Broadband Networks and CTO for Motorola Networks, correctly points out that "While WiMAX has been touted for its ability to deliver advanced applications, there is a significant market need to provide basic connectivity." The MOTOwi4 WiMAX system demonstrated at CTIA is an "ultra-light AP," a highly integrated AP different from a traditional floor mounted cellular-style base station. It can be mounted virtually anywhere. The product displayed is now shipping in limited quantities to preselected and qualified operators. The MOTOwi4 WiMAX portfolio includes the ultra-light AP solution and other 802.16e products designed to be WiMAX Forum-interoperable. The MOTOwi4 platform includes WiMAX, Canopy solutions, Mesh, Broadband over Powerline and Backhaul solutions for private and public networks.

For more on Motorola's MOTOwi4 WiMAX system:
- see this company's press release
- and Eric Griffith's wi-fiplanet report

PLUS: CETECOM, Spain, has introduced new conformance test systems for WiMAX. The MINT family of test solutions comprises radio conformance tester (MINT T2110), protocol conformance tester (MINT T2230) and protocol analyzer tool (MINT T2240). Article

ALSO: ADC and Aperto Networks have partnered to market, sell and install carrier-grade WiMAX broadband systems and solutions for potential service-provider buyers on a global basis. Aperto will supply its range of WiMAX Forum-certified product lines, including base stations, service platforms, and software portfolios, to ADC so the latter can exploit WiMAX market opportunities among voice, data and multimedia service-provider customers. We note that currently Aperto only has one WiMAX-certified product, so the agreement must be aiming at future products yet to be submitted for WiMAX Forum certification (so far only only 14 products have been WiMAX-certified). Report

FINALLY: Infonetics Research says that, from an almost non-existent market in 2004, worldwide WiMAX revenue surged 759 percent in 2005, reaching $142.3 million. TelecomWeb rightly points out that it is not clear what products Infonetics counted, since there were no WiMAX-certified products last year. We assume that the research group considered products meeting the IEEE 802.16 standard on which ETSI HiperMAN is based (WiMAX is a brand name for products which meet the European HiperMAN implementation of the IEEE standards). Infonetics also forecast that the worldwide WiMAX equipment market will continue expanding rapidly with a five-year compound annual growth rate of about 139 percent between 2005 and 2009, when it says the market may reach $1.6 billion. Report