The WiMAX Forum® today announced the launch of its Interoperability Testing (IOT) Certification program, which will leverage Clearwire Corporation’s commercial WiMAX network experience to further ensure interoperability in the 2.5GHz spectrum band. Compared to other mobile IOT programs, this WiMAX Forum IOT Certification program is unprecedented because of its ability to accelerate certification of all vendors’ products and provide more certainty to operators around the globe that WiMAX™ products will efficiently interoperate in a commercial network environment.

The WiMAX Forum has enlisted the help of Clearwire – the leading provider of WiMAX services in the United States. In addition to contributing its technical expertise, Clearwire will share its extensive commercial network test cases to the WiMAX Forum, which will be used to validate interoperability for all submitted 2.5 GHz mobile WiMAX products. As a result, WiMAX vendors will be able to test their WiMAX products against these proven test cases to ensure interoperability with a commercial network environment and rapidly take their WiMAX Forum Certified™ solutions to the marketplace.

“With this first-ever industry initiative, the WiMAX Forum and Clearwire together are showing our commitment to the global operator and vendor communities and underscoring how vital WiMAX Forum Certification is to ensuring quality of services and consumer experience,” said Ali Tabassi, Clearwire’s Senior VP of Global Ecosystem and Standards. “Toward this end, we will expect all WiMAX products to become IOT Certified before entering an operator’s network.”

The interoperability program benefits the participating vendors in several ways. By reducing the cost and timelines associated with completing IOT, this activity translates into a reduction of product evaluation cycles, while allowing vendors to more quickly move products into the commercial marketplace. Additionally, the WiMAX Forum was the first industry consortium of its kind to certify base stations, and continues to do so while simultaneously offering an interoperability program for operator networks that will increase the operators’ confidence levels in certified products. This underscores the value of being WiMAX Forum Certified.

“Operators around the world are lining up to require that WiMAX products become certified prior to introduction to their network to ensure interoperability,” said Ron Resnick, president and chairman of the WiMAX Forum. “The Clearwire partnership will ensure that 2.5 GHz certified products are tested against expertise learned from a live network test bed, and it is our intention to expand this process to other spectrum bands in the future. Today, we’re seeing a steady increase of deployment momentum, and as evidence of this, we’re seeing WiMAX system and device suppliers continue their commitment to the introduction of new, WiMAX Forum Certified products.”

The goal of the program is to ensure that WiMAX Forum Certified products will meet the requirements of operators worldwide and interoperate with a variety of network configurations.

Additional WiMAX Forum Products Certified during Q1 2009
The WiMAX Forum also revealed the certification of nine base stations and five subscriber station in the first quarter of 2009.

• 2.5GHz Base Stations:
o PointRed Telecom Pvt Ltd’s PointMAX10000 Mobile WiMAX base station operates in 2.5 GHz frequency band, and it is also QUAD PLAY enabled in compliance with WiMAX Forum.
o WiNetwork’s WiN7200-2 Pico Base Station is the smallest base station in the market today for a low cost WiMAX access point in locations where increased coverage and capacity are needed both for outdoor and in building applications.

• 2.5 GHz Subscriber Stations:
o Modacom’s MW-C2500E is a Mobile WiMAX express card, which is fully compliant with Mobile WiMAX profiles based on IEEE 802.16e.
o NEC’s AccessTechnica’s PA-WM3200C (or UD02NA) is a WiMAX PCMCIA (Cardbus) card fully complying with Mobile WiMAX MP05 profile based on the IEEE 802.16e-2005 standard.
o NEC’s AccessTechnica’s PA-WM3200U (or UD01NA) is a WiMAX USB dongle fully complying with Mobile WiMAX profile MP05 based on the IEEE 802.16e-2005 standard.
o OKI Networks’ BR3001 is a WiMAX USB modem fully complying with Mobile WiMAX Profile MP05 based on the IEEE 802.16e-2005 standard.

• 3.5GHz Base Stations:
o Alcatel-Lucent’s 9710 Compact Base Station provides wireless access to subscriber stations which are compliant with the WiMAX standard and IEEE 802.16e. It is a zero-footprint, high performance solution with four radio chains, supporting Beam Forming and MIMO features by single sector configurations for enhanced coverage and capacity.

o Alcatel-Lucent’s 9715 Lightweight Base Station provides wireless access to subscriber stations which are compliant with the WiMAX standard and IEEE 802.16e. It is a zero-footprint, very compact and optimized solution for MIMO with two radio chains support by single sector configurations.

o Alvarion’s BreezeMAX® platform is a fourth generation OFDM radio access network that provides state of the art 4G functionality in one of the industry’s most deployed WiMAX platform with over 250 commercial deployments in service around the globe. BreezeMAX is built with IP and OFDM innovation that spans over 12 years of development experience and provides a carrier class stable platform that allows rapid development of new features. The BreezeMAX offers a scalable and high capacity solution in a compact package to support a variety of network configurations needed during the network’s growth.

o Huawei’s DBS3900 is a base station that is fully compliant with the Mobile WiMAX specifications and supports the 2.3GHz, 2.5GHz and 3.5GHz frequency bands. The WiMAX DBS3900 introduces a distributed architecture with a fiber connection between the baseband unit and remote RF unit. The RF unit of the DBS3900 is very small, light and easy to install. This unique product architecture was conceived to save OPEX and CAPEX. The WiMAX DBS3900 adopts advanced innovative technologies, such as multi-carrier and MIMO A/B which auto-adapts for better coverage and capacity.

o NEC’s PasoWings Macro Base Station featuring advanced coverage and capacity enhancement technologies such as MIMO-A/B and Uplink Collaborative MIMO allows economical deployment of true broadband access network, which is flexibly collaborating with its industry leading IT application as an end-to-end solution. NEC Press Release may be found here: http://www.nec.co.jp/press/en/0904/0101.html.

o Samsung’s 3.5GHz base station, the U-RAS Flexible, is a new addition to Samsung’s WiMAX Forum Certified products in 2.3GHz and 2.5GHz bands. U-RAS Flexible is separated into 2 parts, Digital Unit and Remote Radio Head, supporting more flexible installation. Its powerful RF output effectively covers macro network areas. It adopts Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) technology and is ready for Beamforming, ensuring consistent quality service for years to come.

o ZTE’s B9100+R9100 are distributed base station systems developed on MicroTCA hardware platform equipped with features such as easy upgrade path, compact design, and low total cost of ownership (TCO). It supports advanced MIMO technology, which enhances the signal transmission quality of a single base station.

3.5 GHz Subscriber Station:
o Samsung’s SWC-U200 (3.5GHz) USB dongle operates in 3.5GHz frequency band and offers high-speed connectivity in a mobile environment with low power consumption. It fully integrates direct up transmitter and ZIF receiver architecture, which has low noise, large dynamic range with high linearity.

WiMAX Forum Expanding Certification Labs in 2009
In addition to its existing six labs around the world, the WiMAX Forum plans to add two new labs to its network in 2009, including Brazil and Malaysia. This will provide regional certification support to ensure that products are quickly certified and then released to the public in these growing markets.

The WiMAX Forum also is modifying its certification program’s results non-disclosure policy.

The Forum took another significant step in enabling the health of the technology’s ecosystem by allowing qualified manufacturers to provide test results as part of the certification process.

Manufacturer labs must be qualified against rigorous criteria and established quality guidelines. These process improvements by the WiMAX Forum will enhance product to market speed and further enable the consumer electronic model of product delivery to the consumer.

For more information on the WiMAX Forum certification program, please visit www.WiMAXForum.org.