Nortel and Urban Wimax have teamed up to prove the technical viability of mobile Wimax across Western Europe. They plan to demonstrate mobile WiMax in the UK, using the IEEE 802.16e standard, in advance of Ofcom’s likely auction of 2.5GHz spectrum in 2008.

Nortel and Urban will construct and demonstrate a “user-ready” mobile WiMax service, using Airspan gear with access to up to 9000 rooftops provided by Macropolitan, a company that organizes base station access. Handsets and client equipment will be provided by LG, among others.

“Nortel’s investment in Wimax and our role in this collaboration reinforces our commitment to driving the deployment of advanced broadband services across the country,” said Gerry Collins, director of wireless EMEA at Nortel.

Urban Wimax service will compete with NTL/Telewest cable and BT’s DSL to deliver broadband to the home (and elsewhere).

With broadband penetration accelerating in eastern economies such as China and India, Nortel and Urban Wimax believe that the 2.5/2.69GHz Wimax spectrum auction by Ofcom provides the UK with a vital opportunity to stay abreast of the competition with 4G roll-out.

Things have not gone swimmingly with Pipex, which was offering 3.5 GHz fixed WiMAX service. Pipex, a British company, hopes to offload what remains of the group following the breakup deal it cut with Italy’s Tiscali in July.

The remaining scraps of the Pipex carcass would be complete “the next few months”, says The Register. Tiscali is paying £210m for the consumer broadband unit, leaving hosting, business broadband, and WiMAX swinging in the breeze.

Pipex Wireless has been running UK trials in Milton Keynes, Warwick and Leamington Spa in partnership with Intel, National Grid Wireless and Ericsson. It also recently announced a strategic alliance with Nokia Siemens Networks. A commercial launch of the service was planned for Manchester, using Airspan gear and Intel’s Rosedale WiMax chipset.

Pipex’s fixed 3.6 GHz WiMAX service would have had a tough slog against BT’s anticipated Mobile WiMAX service at 2.6 GHz in the next year or two.

Hey. Isn’t it about time for a T-Mobile/Clearwire deal?

Related DailyWireless stories include; BT’s European WiMAX Plan, Nokia WiMAX: UK Tough, U.S. Litigious, Fixed Vrs Mobile WiMAX in UK?, UK Unwires 12 Cities, UK to Auction 215 MHz - for Everything and OFCOM’s Global Sit Rep.

Posted by Sam Churchill on Monday, August 6th, 2007 at 7:27 am.