Document Actions
WiMAX Spectrum Consortium Plans Merger into WBA’s Wi-Fi Roaming Efforts
Eventual unified operator group expects to develop specifications for roaming between WiMAX and Wi-Fi standards
The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) and the
WiMAX Spectrum Owners Alliance (WiSOA) announced a roaming collaboration and
plans to merge the WiSOA membership into the WBA. The WBA has developed the
Wireless Roaming Intermediary eXchange (WRIX), a set of modular specifications
and standards for radius interconnection, data and financial clearing that is
currently available to support commercial Wi-Fi roaming amongst WBA members. The
collaboration is expected to advance global roaming for WiMAX and inter-standard
roaming between WiMAX and Wi-Fi technologies. Inter-standard roaming would
permit data connections originating on a Wi-Fi network to persist on to a WiMAX
network and vice versa.
The WBA was formed in 2003 to develop a common commercial and technical
framework for wireless broadband technologies and by October 2006 had grown to
26 network operators across Asia Pacific, the Americas and Europe. Member
operators are primarily those offering Wi-Fi hotspot services. The WBA executive
committee members include Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile), Orange France, BT, KT,
Swisscom and Tata Communications along with roaming clearinghouse providers such
as MACH, Syniverse and VeriSign. The thirteen announced members of WiSOA consist
of: AUSTAR (Australia), CosmoTelco (Greece), Irish Broadband (Ireland), Liberty
Global (Australia, Chile, Europe, Japan), Max Telecom (Bulgaria),
NextWave Broadband (Germany, Switzerland, and
U.S.), Nomad (Mauritius), Telecom New Zealand (New Zealand), PCCW's UK
Broadband (United Kingdom), Unwired (Australia), WiMAX Telecom (Austria,
Croatia, Slovakia), YTL e-Solutions Berhad (Malaysia), and YOZAN (Japan). Once
the merge is completed, WiSOA member operators are expected to join and
participate in future WBA activities.
WiSOA had established three working groups within its member ranks: Roaming,
Developing Economies, and Specification & Joint Procurement. The spectrum
owner's club is also the publisher of online news portal WiMAX Day. No word on
if the Developing Economies or Specification & Joint Procurement initiatives
will survive the eventual transition.
An industry collaboration project to support requirements for WiMAX roaming and
inter-standard roaming between WiMAX and Wi-Fi had already been commissioned by
WBA. The initial results are expected to be available for operators by second
half of 2008.
By Jeff Orr
ORR Technology, LLC
_____
tags:
