Apparently WiMAX passed the final hurdle last night, and is now a member of the ITU's IMT-2000 family of technologies. In others words... it is a type of 3G.
Can't say I'm overly surprised by this, especially given the recent ramp-up in announcements & perceived credibility that the technology has garnered. Cisco's reported sniffing around Navini was also a bit of a signal that it thinks WiMAX is about to get its mainstream credentials bolstered.
It'll be interesting to see if this means there will be some back-pedalling on the other parallel regulatory approach to getting WiMAX accepted - technology neutrality. Now that WiMAX is a member of the 3G club, perhaps it'll decide that exclusivity isn't so bad after all.....
Dean Bubley's Disruptive Wireless: Thought-leading wireless industry analysis
So does that now mean that WiMax isn't 4G anymore? Its just another radio technology choice to deploy in 2.5GHz spectrum, where you'll still need large numbers of cellsites, civil works, power, backhaul, field staff and all the other costs of running a cellular network, but without the existing volume of 1Bn new mobile device shipments per year. Oh, and its about as much use for roaming as CDMA (ie 10 countries compared to 250 GSM/UMTS deployments). This is a niche market play and does not compete directly with existing 2G/3G mobile - it complements it for certain situations.
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