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Palm Springs to get first Alcatel-Lucent Mobile WiMAX network in US
Craig Wireless gets its WiMAX on with a hot California deployment
Alcatel-Lucent announced it has been selected by Craig Wireless to build a new WiMAX network -- based on the IEEE 802.16e-2005 WiMAX standard -- in Palm Springs, California. Alcatel-Lucent will provide base stations, wireless access controllers and an operation and maintenance center. Alcatel-Lucent also will provide network design, planning, installation and optimization for end-to-end integration of the network, which will operate in the 2.5 gigahertz (GHz) spectrum band.
Palm Springs is a resort and recreation community in the California desert about 110 miles east of Los Angeles. "Our Palm Springs customers will be able to enjoy fast, reliable connections to the Internet anywhere they live, work or play," said Boyd Craig, President and CEO of Craig Wireless Systems. Craig Wireless Systems also holds or leases licenses for spectrum in the 2.5 GHz, 2.6 GHz or 3.5 GHz bands in Manitoba, British Columbia along with the countries of Greece, Norway and New Zealand.
Customer premise equipment (CPE) are not included in the arrangement. Alcatel-Lucent promotes an "open CPE" program that enables network operators to choose from a variety of device vendor options, which are all tested compatible with the base station infrastructure. In early demonstrations of the Alcatel-Lucent platform, CPE pairings of ZyXEL PC cards and desktop modems were common.
TDS Telecom has the other notable deployment of mobile WiMAX in the US. The operator launched broadband access service in the Madison, Wisconsin market on January 22, 2008 using Alvarion radios.
By Jeff Orr, ORR Technology, LLC
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