WiMAX Forum Advances in Industrial Markets

The WiMAX Forum is invigorating its involvement in industrial markets and building its WiMAX Advanced initiative. While many members of the WiMAX Forum are transitioning away from the traditional Service Provider mobile broadband wireless segment, the technology itself is making headway into industrial markets, demonstrating that there remains a large and enduring opportunity for WiMAX technology.

The WiMAX Forum invites you to learn more at WiMAX Africa 2013, which will be co-located with Informa Telecom & Media’s AfricaCom on Monday, November 11, 2013 at the Cape Town Convention Centre in Cape Town, South Africa. In its third year, this year’s event will focus specifically on supporting the African operator community developing and managing profitable growth of WiMAX network deployments. For more information and registration, please visit: WiMAX Africa 2013.

The WiMAX Forum successfully hosted its first WiMAX Aviation Event this month, which was collocated with the WiMAX Forum Member Conference in Washington, DC, USA. WiMAX Aviation 2013 drew more than 100 attendees from over 40 companies in North America, Europe, and Asia. Attendees were treated to a full two-day program with 28 organizations contributing speakers from WiMAX vendors, airlines, airport authorities, a variety of government representatives, and other groups:

•    Airbus
•    AT4 Wireless
•    ASRI
•    Bureau Veritas ADT
•    BWI Marshall
•    CelPlan Technologies
•    ENRI Japan
•    EUROCONTROL
•    FAA
•    GCT Semiconductor
•    Gemtek
•    Harris Corporation
•    Hitachi
•    Honeywell
•    ICAO
•    ITRI
•    MWAA
•    NASA
•    NEC
•    Saab Sensis Corporation
•    SAIC
•    Selex ES
•    Sequans Communications
•    SESAR
•    SITA
•    Symantec Corporation
•    Thales Communications
•    UPS

Bringing together the key players of the Aviation Community and WiMAX ecosystem, this event fostered thoughtful discussions on a wide range of topics that included the big-picture vision and strategy for airport systems and more specifics, such as AeroMACS trial deployments and certification for AeroMACS equipment and devices.

“We couldn’t have been happier with the quality and candor of the technical and commercial discussion”, said Declan Byrne, President of the WiMAX Forum.  “We were particularly impressed by the participation of such important international figures, such as Nancy Graham, Director of the Air Navigation Bureau, International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), whose remarks made clear to participants the international support for this new market segment for WiMAX”.

AeroMACS is IEEE 802.16e (WiMAX) technology applied to create a new airport (surface) communication system that is robust, efficient, secure, safe, and flexible. Through this event and the WiMAX Forum Aviation Working Group activities, the Forum is facilitating the ability to certify WiMAX technology to apply AeroMACS to the airport surface.

Furthermore, WiMAX Aviation 2013 illustrated the tremendous potential and highlighted the interest in delivering broadband wireless services to the Aviation Industry, using WiMAX technology. To carry on progress and maintain the momentum that the event created, the WiMAX Forum will follow up with an Aviation Summit in Europe in 2014.

The WiGRID initiative is also building traction, and industries continue to choose WiMAX due to it being a mature, stable, and cost-efficient technology with better access to unlicensed or lightly licensed spectrum. WiGRID is optimized WIMAX technology based on IEEE 802.16e for utilities and industrial applications. This year, the WiMAX Forum Smart Grid Working Group modified its name to Smart Energy Working Group to encompass its widening focus on mining, oil & gas, and utilities. Specifically in Asia and Latin America, new trials and deployments are afoot to replace legacy smart meters. This will only grow in the next decade.

The WiMAX Forum will host two related events to further this initiative for the remainder of 2013. WiGRID 2013 will be held at EUTC in Amsterdam, Netherlands on October 23rd-25th, participating in an educational session called WiMAX – A Suitable Solution for Smart Grids and featuring Accenture, Cisco, and GE in the EUTC Pavilion. WiMAX Oil & Gas Event 2013 will be a pre-conference session at OilComm on Wednesday, November 6th to focus specifically on supporting the Oil & Gas community in deploying effective and affordable WiMAX networks to support their communication initiatives.

Lastly, the Forum is progressing with WiMAX Advanced, a transition technology to promote WiMAX technology and TD-LTE coexistence as the Service Provider mobile broadband wireless segment begins to introduce TD-LTE alongside WiMAX.

The WiMAX Forum is making strong and steady progress in the industrial market segments. This growth establishes that it is a valuable solution for broadband distribution for many countries across the globe and bringing people from different organizations together to discuss opportunities, challenges, and strategies involved in operating profitable WiMAX networks in each market.

For more information on WiMAX technology or to become a member of the WiMAX Forum, please contact Raul Rigo at Raul.Rigo@WiMAXForum.org. You may reach Raul by phone at +1 (305) 382-7590. For more information on upcoming WiMAX Forum events, please visit: www.WiMAXForum.org/events.

About the WiMAX Forum®
The WiMAX Forum® is an industry-led, not-for-profit organization that certifies and promotes the compatibility and interoperability of broadband wireless products based upon IEEE Standard 802.16. The WiMAX Forum’s primary goal is to accelerate the adoption, deployment and expansion of WiMAX technologies across the globe while facilitating roaming agreements, sharing best practices within our membership and certifying products. WiMAX Forum Certified® products are interoperable and support broadband fixed, nomadic, portable and mobile services. The WiMAX Forum works closely with service providers and regulators to ensure that WiMAX Forum Certified systems meet customer and government requirements. For more information, visit www.wimaxforum.org.

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