WiMAX Gear Suppliers Jockey For FCC Spectrum Auction

With the Federal Communications Commission preparing to auction 90 megahertz of advanced wireless services spectrum, suppliers of WiMAX gear are positioning themselves to supply equipment to winners of the spectrum.

Siemens Communications Inc. unveiled its WayMAX@vantage solution Thursday for use by U.S. service providers. The Siemens solution for voice, data, and video is targeted at advanced wireless services including 3G.

"WayMAX radio technology is beneficial wherever laying cable is impractical or non-economical," said Harald Braun, president, Siemens Networks Division, in a statement. "This makes the WayMAX solution a useful complimentary technology to digital subscriber line (DSL) services and the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS)."

The company said the WayMAX solution can be used for last-mile broadband connections, wireless DSL, VoIP, hotspot and cellular backhaul as well as for connectivity for the SOHO and mid-sized business markets. Siemens said the equipment as been certified by the WiMAX Forum.

On Friday, Nortel said it was beefing up its WiMAX portfolio with enhancements powered by MIMO technology, which generally utilize dual array multiple antenna systems. Nortel said its WiMAX gear will operate in the 1.5, 2.3, 2.5, an 3.5GHz spectrum bands.The company also cited a list of recent WiMAX service provider customer wins including NEW Energie in Germany, Telefonica Moviles in Mexico, and Chunghwa Telecom and National Taiwan University in Taiwan.