Sprint said on Thursday it agreed to run technology tests with Motorola this year and next year for future high-speed wireless networks.
The collaboration is expected to spur IEEE 802.16e (2.5GHz) development, validate vendor solutions and help formulate network architecture strategies, says Motorola in a press release.
The technical assessment involves lab testing of base station equipment, smart antenna technology and multimedia handsets and field trials in certain locations as a basis for additional business case evaluation.
Successful outcomes will lead to customer demonstrations and further user studies for market applicability.
Sprint is fostering a number of strategic partnerships and investigating multiple technologies in support of future wireless interactive multimedia services,” explained Oliver Valente, Sprint CTO and VP for technology development. WiMAX is one of the technologies Sprint is investigating for services which would be considered for deployment in the 2.5 GHz band of spectrum.
Sprint and Nextel, combined, have 2.5 Ghz spectrum in 80 of the top 100 U.S. markets.
In May, Sprint said it would conduct trials with Intel. Earlier this week, Nextel said they will trial broadband wireless gear from IPWireless in Washington DC. IPWireless uses a CDMA-based time-division duplex (TDD) data system. Similar to most implementations of OFDM-based WiMax, IP Wireless uses unpaired spectrum, sending and receiving data on one channel rather than two.
WiMax is said to provide faster speeds although IP Wireless can deliver better mobility than the first generation of (fixed) WiMax.
In related news, Navini says they’ll begin shipping a dual-mode customer premisis equipment, the Ripwave-MX in Q4 2005, with the Ripwave-MX dual-mode PCMCIA card targeted for 1Q 2006. Both will be software upgradeable to Navini s 802.16e system.
Dual-mode means that the CPE (also dubbed LCD CPE to underscore its cellular like ease of activation) and the PCMCIA card will be capable of switching between the current pre-WiMAX mode and 802.16e mode.
The Ripwave-MX BTS, targeted for 1st half of 2006, will be software upgradeable to 802.16e and will continue to support the Smart Antenna functionality available from Navini today. This, in conjunction with the Ripwave EMS that will support both the Navini pre-WIMAX and WiMAX network, will facilitate a smooth transition to 802.16e.
Starting with a plug-n-play portable solution today, as opposed to a fixed solution, sets up the operator to better evolve to a fully mobile network with ubiquitous coverage that supports hand-overs and vehicular mobility”, said Adlane Fellah, Senior Analyst, Maravedis, Inc. “Given the fact that 802.16e is not fully ratified yet and CPE chipsets will be available in volumes only late next year, an evolutionary approach makes perfect sense.”
Navini operates the world s largest plug-n-play network in Sydney, Australia, and recently announced a deal with BellSouth to unwire Athens, Georgia. Both are deploying the plug-n-play zero-install Ripwave solution today and expect to upgrade to the 802.16e Mobile WiMAX standard in the future.
“The Navini Networks transition path to mobile WiMAX 802.16e is excellent,” said David Spence, CEO Unwired Australia. Unwired plans to be one of the first wireless broadband carriers in the world to move to the mobile WiMAX standard and Navini’s products will enable us to do this in a very cost-effective and consumer friendly way.”
DailyWireless has more on WiMax: On The Move, Navini’s Mobile WiMax, and Arraycomm + Intel Beam WiMax.
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