Alcatel boldly announced that it will offer its WiMax base station based on the IEEE 802.16e-2005 standard, the mobile WiMax standard, by mid-2006 despite the fact that the IEEE only ratified the standard in December. Just like the 802.11x market, we'll likely begin to see several vendors coming out of the gate as soon as they can with mobile WiMax equipment they say is compatible with the standard in order to grab market share. While other vendors such as Nokia are taking a wait-and-see attitude when it comes to WiMax, Alcatel has moved aggressively with mobile WiMax. The vendor teamed with Korea's KT in December to accelerate the development of WiMax, beginning with the establishment of an interoperability testing center in Seoul. It also has demonstrated IMS over WiMax and is winning WiMax contracts for trials and roll outs in Europe.
For more about Alcatel's WiMax plans:
- check out this press release