During the opening address at its member conference in Madrid, Spain, the WiMAX Forum announced the first North America-based certification test lab.
Established and operated by the WiMAX Forum’s certification testing partner, AT4 wireless Inc., the lab will be located in Virginia and is scheduled to open in October. The WiMAX Forum plans to have five certification test labs located in the United States, Europe, China, Korea and Taiwan by the end of 2007.
The lab initially will be staffed by up to 25 to 30 employees and will conduct WiMAX Forum certification testing and radiated 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 North America may submit devices for certification at the Virginia facility in October. The forum also anticipates the lab eventually to provide capabilities to support the convergence of emerging wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi with WiMAX and Bluetooth with WiMAX.
"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 WiMAX Forum is a nonprofit organization for certifying and promoting the compatibility and interoperability of broadband wireless products based on the IEEE 802.16/ETSI HiperMAN standard.
AT4 wireless Inc. www.at4wireless.com
WiMAX Forum www.wimaxforum.org
