WiMAX Forum moves to counter negative spin

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 02 August 2007 17:11

Business IT - Technology

Negative comments about WiMAX, being made in Australia largely by Telstra, have prompted a visit from the vice president of the WiMAX Forum who intends to combat the bad press.

Mohammad Shakouri, WiMAX Forum board member and vice president of marketing, told iTWire: "We have someone in Australia who is helping us with regulatory activities and he said there was a lot of politics and miscommunication around WiMAX. So as was  in the area - about a 10 hour flight away - I thought it would be useful to come here to better understand what is going on and to put realistic expectations about what is happening in the WiMAX industry."

He added: "We heard a lot of noise and some of the claims being made about WiMAX are completely ridiculous...We want to form a team to develop material that can help the information getting out there to be based on more than just hype."

Shakouri hopes to counter the bad press with some positive stories about WiMAX. "With examples of real deployment we can help people better understand its capabilities. There are deployments in Japan, in Europe, in the US. This technology has been very well used for many years. There is no problem with the technology: it is a political issue."

Although the fixed WiMAX standard is relatively new, Shakouri insists that the technology underpinning it is well proven. "The OFDM broadband wireless access technology has been very well deployed for the last 10 years, although WiMax was commercialised only last year. The difference is a standard, not the technology: the technology is very well proven."

Shakouri said one of his tasks when he returns to the US will be to try and identify fixed WiMAX deployments similar to that planned by Opel that could be used to counter claims that the technology wil not deliver.