Clearwire International, LLC, an operating subsidiary of Clearwire Corporation (NASDAQ: CLWR), and Aicent Inc. announced an important step forward for international WiMAX roaming following the successful completion of the first inter-network roaming connection between WiMAX networks.
The demonstration, which enabled a USB modem and a CLEAR 4G WiMAX service username and password to gain access to a WiMAX network in Taiwan, shows the ease with which a CLEARTM 4G WiMAX user could gain access to a non-CLEAR network abroad using Aicent’s WiMAX Roaming eXchange (WRX).
“The future promise of WiMAX stretches beyond national borders to offer mobile data users the ability to connect wirelessly, at broadband speeds, wherever they may travel across the globe,” said Ali Tabassi, Clearwire’s Senior Vice President of Global Ecosystem and Standards. “The ability of WiMAX operators
to work cooperatively in order to create seamless, simple and reliable
international interoperability, as we have successfully demonstrated
through Aicent’s facilities, will be crucial to realizing the
tremendous social and economic potential of a truly connected world.”
“The entire communications industry stands on the precipice of
immense change,” said Lynn Liu, president and CEO of Aicent. “People
are traveling with great ease and more often than not bringing with
them devices that need to connect to networks. There are important
technical challenges to overcome to enable people to have ‘anywhere,
anytime access’ to these important, often critical, data networking
connections. Aicent is fortunate to work with leaders likeClearwire to bring the innovations that will ultimately result in a worldwide ubiquitous WiMAX network.”
WiMAX has emerged as a key technology to support true 4G connectivity for both fixed wireless and mobile. Available spectrum in countries has been allocated to WiMAX and hundreds of new wireless operators are delivering services alongside traditional wireless operators. Today there are a growing number of devices supporting multiple radios for multimode WiMAX, WiMAX+Wi-Fi, WiMAX+EVDO and WiMAX+GSM in the market. Aicent is already working with many CDMA, GSM, Wi-Fi and WiMAX operators to bring global and inter-standard roaming into commercial reality.
