Johannesburg, 09 Dec 2005
Competition in the wide area networking (WAN) arena is about to escalate with the formal certification of products conforming to the WiMax wireless networking standard.
This is according to Louis Helmbold, technology and business developer, at Duxbury Networking, the South African distributor of Proxim wireless networking products.
WiMax - or the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, as defined in IEEE 802.16 standard - is the standard for fixed wireless, last-mile technology.
Helmbold says new, standards-based WiMax products are expected to lower the cost of vendor equipment to service providers, ultimately serving as a catalyst to ignite the global market demand for WiMax solutions.
He confirms that products from Proxim were submitted to the Cetecom Laboratories in Malaga, Spain, for initial conformance and interoperability testing earlier this year.
"This critical exercise - now completed - has ensured the readiness of Proxim and other solutions for the final, formal conformance testing phase which will begin this month [October 2005]," he says.
"The WiMax Forum`s stamp of approval will certify that products have passed critical protocol and radio conformance as well as interoperability tests - all essential to seamless integration and operability within end user applications.
"Dealers, resellers and end users should be ready for a fast roll-out of new WIMAX products during the last quarter of 2005. However, they should ensure that all purchases carry the `WiMax Forum Certified` mark," he cautions.
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