The WiMAX Forum announced today that the first North America-based certification test lab will be located in Virginia and is due to open this October. The North America-based lab becomes one of five test labs for WiMAX Forum Certified™ products worldwide. It will be established and operated by the WiMAX Forum’s lead certification testing partner, AT4 wireless.
“Establishing a WiMAX Forum designated test facility in North America is very important strategically because the WiMAX Forum and key Telecommunications Industry Forums are located in the U.S.,” said Luis Fernando Martinez, General Director of AT4 wireless. “We plan to quickly open a lab in the United States to support global certification testing for both Fixed and Mobile WiMAX devices.”
The lab will initially be staffed by up to 25 - 30 employees and will conduct WiMAX Forum certification and performance testing. AT4 wireless will develop and replicate the certification test beds to match other test beds globally so that interoperability for all WiMAX Forum Certified devices is assured. WiMAX Forum members in the Americas may submit devices for certification at the Virginia facility in October.
The WiMAX Forum plans to have five certification test labs located in the U.S., Europe, China, Korea and Taiwan by end of 2007.
Meanwhile IEEE 802.16 engineers are currently meeting in Madrid, Spain, at the Melia Castilla Hotel, June 18-22, 2007. The General Assembly will begin Tuesday morning June 19, with Working Group sessions following the General Assembly and continuing throughout the week.
One of the hot topics surrounding IEEE 802.16 is the emerging 802.16m standard, a Gigabit/second version of WiMAX.
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