WiMAX Forum moves to counter negative spin

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 02 August 2007 18:11

Business IT - Technology

He acknowledged that the Forum needed greater emphasis on promotion. "Being a young industry we have been more focussed on engineering than marketing. I think at the end of the day we thought all the hype would go away." However, he said the Forum did not have the resources of the cellular camp. "We do not have the machinery of the competition...But we have to do a better job."

A distinct possibility is direct WiMAX Forum representation in Australia, along the lines of that established in other countries, Shakouri said. "We need to took at having representation in Australia. We have reps in India, China, Russia, Brazil and we need to see how to do it in Australia. I will be putting some report to the board when I go back."

He added: "We always have supportive vendors [in individual markets], but normally on specific tasks. Our president and I are doing most of the positioning globally, but we have hired people locally in those other countries."

Although there has been much commentary positioning WiMAX, particularly mobile WiMAX as a head-to-head competitor with 3G HDPA for market share in the broadband wireless space, Shakouri sees the two as very complementary.

"We see a big distinction between WiMAX and 3G. The value proposition for WiMAX is for operators to find new ways to make money out of data....It is unbelievable [the amount of data] we will use. I see great opportunities for us: the more 3G is successful the better for WiMAX...Millions of people want to have internet access at their fingertips. This is what wiMax wants to enable."