Mobile WiMax Standard Approved

NewsFactor Network reports that the "IEEE has formally approved the mobile WiMax standard, giving it the designation 802.16e." According to the article, 802.16e will support "peak speeds of around 20 Mbps, with average data rates expected to be between 1 Mbps and 4 Mbps, roughly equivalent to DSL or cablebroadband."

Yankee Group analyst Lindsay Schroth said, "Ratification of the standard by the IEEE is good news, as vendors will now be able to prepare mobile broadband data products based on WiMax 802.16e. The WiMax Forum has been working on the specification for 802.16e for quite some time, and the spec has been very near ratification for the last three months. There has been a lot of toing and froing about the spec between the IEEE and the WiMax Forum."

Schroth added, "There are vendors building systems based on the base technology described in the 802.16e specification. I guess you could call the solutions being built 'pre-mobile WiMaX' solutions. However, I still do not expect that you will see products that are certified with the standard until late 2006 or early 2007."