Motorola, Nokia Unveil WiMAX Product Rollouts

Motorola and Nokia squared off at a WiMAX trade show Wednesday as both wireless titans announced products that underscore their commitment to the emerging broadband wireless technology.

Nokia unveiled its Flexi WiMAX Base Station, a compact and lightweight module that can be installed indoors or outdoors. The base station will be commercially available for the 2.5 GHz band at the end of 2007 and for the 3.5 GHz band in the first quarter of 2008.

Also unveiled at WiMAX World USA in Boston was Motorola's first generation of WiMAX CPE gear. Motorola said its "plug and play" products include its outdoor CPEo 200 Series and its indoor CPEi 200, 400 and 600 Series.

Motorola said its WiMAX equipment is currently being tested in 18 global markets. Its gear is being deployed in an 802.16e network in Pakistan.

Its products on display at the trade show this week will be available for trial later this year, Motorola said, adding that their general availability is scheduled for the first half of 2007.Nokia said its WiMAX Base Station is an important piece of its overall mobile WiMAX approach, which "complements its current solutions to operators in cellular radio access technologies." The company added that its comprehensive end-to-end infrastructure solution is planned to operate with its Nokia Unified Core Networks and IP Multimedia Subsystem.

"Nokia is a strong believer in having a multiradio strategy that gives operators a future-proof solution and the flexibility to choose different technologies as they evolve," said Ari Lehtoranta, senior vice president, Nokia Radio Networks, in a prepared statement.

Another WiMAX player, Nortel, demonstrated real-time, multimedia IPTV and IMS services over what it calls a 4G WiMAX network. The firm said the demo displays expertise in delivering IP-based broadband over a group of devices including TVs, phones, PDAs while they are accessed from different networks ranging from wireless, DSL or cable.

"4G Mobile Broadband technologies will usher in the ecosystem to deliver a host of new applications such as mobile video via IPTV," said George Riedel, Nortel's chief strategy officer, in a prepared statement.

More than 175 speakers and 135 exhibitors have signed up to participate in the show, which continues Thursday.0