The WiMAX Global Roaming Alliance (WGRA), formed last month by founding member RemotePipes, says it’s time to build concensus on a system to enable WiMax users to roam between different wireless ISPs. WGRA has a discussion forum, press releases and a list of members.
The WGRA says it is not intended to be another standards body. Rather, they intend to steer consensus toward the best available or developing standard. They will suggest changes if necessary, then push for uniform deployment and implementation of those standards.
Eric Engbers, president of RemotePipes says, “There is nothing worse than an accepted standard that has been implemented in 15 different flavors throughout the supply chain.” Early members who have already completed submission of profile information include:
- Sify Limited
- StoneBridge Wireless Broadband
- Dockpoint
- WiMaxPro.com
- Wisper ISP
- Airnet Telecom
- Telelink Australia
- News IQ
- RemotePipes
- Airpath Wireless
- WeRoam
- Starhome
- Futura Technologies
- Aramova
- Minuteman Support Services
The WGRA hopes it can stimulate competitive, ubiquitous wireless broadband services. With roaming.
Eric Engbers, Chairman of WGRA, stated “We are committed to the mass deployment of global WiMAX networks and as such we want to ensure that WiMAX has the cleanest path to market possible. Wi-Fi roaming is still not doing as well as it should be because there was inadequate collaboration.
“No single carrier can offer a global facilities-based WiMAX service, so WiMAX roaming agreements are going to be just as critical as roaming agreements are for the cellular industry,” explains Engbers.
According to Todd Myers, CEO of Airpath Wireless (www.airpath.com), a WGRA member and leading provider of wireless OSS, clearinghouse and interconnection solutions, the WGRA has solid aims. “In order to maximize the value of WiMAX connectivity for nomadic users roaming must be transparent to them. This has been largely achieved by cellular providers and the same can be done between all forms of wireless broadband access.
Pete Szalay, CEO at Aramova (www.aramova.com), an Intelligent Access Management (smart-client) solutions provider, headquartered in San Francisco, CA, added “As part of the WGRA we hope to continue our leadership in simplifying the connection process for end-users: creating solutions that allow service providers to offer their customers service plans which transcend the disparate network technologies.
The lead organizer, Remote Pipes, provides mobile wireless and wireline access in over 150 countries. Their proprietary Global Roaming Product Suite and Stored Value Engine (SVE) hosted software applications power their TollFreeISP and IP Roamer services.
Beginning in early July the WGRA hopes to begin to fill leadership positions in the Alliance.
It’s still not clear how members of the major industry association, the WiMax Forum, feel about the goals of WGRA. Furthermore, it is not clear whether large organizations like Comcast or Qwest want to provide roaming in their space.
A WiFi Planet article explained that groups like the Wi-Fi Alliance, ran into incompatibilities while developing the WISPr roaming standard for Wi-Fi, and was a motivation for forming WGRA. “WISPr has been implemented in at least four or five distinct flavors at this point, and I think that’s stood in the way of adoption,” says Engbers.
Telecom Asia says the mobility of WiMax makes a better business strategy (but it’s no sure thing). Personal Broadband in Australia offers Navini’s mobile service (with cell to cell hopping) at speeds up to 1 Mbps.
Cellular based offering such as Australia’s 3 [a W-CDMA cellular service] and Telstra’s EV-DO product match PBA in terms of mobility but lack the speed (200-300 kbps for 3 and 300-500 kbps for Telstra). Despite this capability, PBA has struggled to develop a specific segment to support its business. Demand has been slower than expected and a critical mass of CPE is still some time off.
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