WiMAX Roaming Showcased at WiMAX Forum Conference

The first public demonstration of Mobile WiMAX global roaming has been performed today in Taiwan at the WiMAX Forum Member Conference. The demonstration was announced by Clearwire, Tatung InfoComm and VMAX, showcasing the power of WiMAX in Taipei, and anticipating the commercial rollout of six WiMAX networks in Taiwan by the first quarter of next year.

The live demonstration has been hosted at the WiMAX Forum Taiwan Office, and has enjoyed the participation of industry names like Samsung, Futureinfonet, Alcatel-Lucent, and Bridgewater Systems. The showcase has included commercially available Mobile WiMAX devices and has demonstrated how a user can connect to a local WiMAX network in Taiwan.

At the same time, Tatung InfoComm and VMAX have showcased two-way roaming capabilities, a critical feature in Taiwan. International roaming is another part of the demonstration, and has been showcased from Clearwire International to VMAX and Tatung InfoComm, so as to prove that WiMAX can be seen as a global technology. The end-to-end WiMAX roaming demonstration has showed that WiMAX equipment comes with interoperability capabilities, as well as the fact that WiMAX networks can already support global roaming.

“Global roaming is a critical factor for the success of WiMAX as a leading global broadband wireless technology,” says Ron Resnick, president and chairman of the WiMAX Forum. “Roaming is important to operators today, as there are more than 500 WiMAX deployments in more than 145 countries and the momentum of WiMAX deployments continues with double digit deployment adds each month.”

WiMAX Roaming Exchanges (WRX) is set to enable roaming capabilities between WiMAX operators, so that roaming services can be easily implemented and for the deployment to be made with less financial costs. The WiMAX Forum Taiwan Office is set to work with Aicent, for WiMAX roaming trials among universities, research institutions and carriers around the world. Successful roaming trials have been already performed in Taiwan and between Taiwan and the United States.