Proxim, Intel To Deliver Certified WiMAX In Early 2005

Proxim and Intel said Thursday that they will work together to deliver certified WiMAX 802.16 wireless broadband equipment by early next year.

Proxim said that it plans to deliver certified WiMAX base stations for service providers and large enterprises and customer premises equipment by early 2005 based on the 802.16a standard for fixed wireless broadband. That initial equipment will be branded the Proxim Tsunami MP 16.

The companies said in a statement that the product will be certified by the WiMAX Forum.. They said they would develop mobile WiMAX products later in 2005 based on the 802.16e standard, which supports mobility.

Several wireless Internet Service providers (WISPs) such as TowerStream are already providing pre-standard WiMAX access to enterprise customers and claim that upgrading to certified products will be easy. Interoperability testing leading to certification isn't expected to begin until later this year. Initial certification will be for fixed WiMAX products with testing for the mobile version of the standard to begin next year.

Besides the hardware, Proxim said it also will provide supporting software that enable capabilities such as subscriber roaming and dynamic bandwidth management.