Alvarion, MLL Telecom say mobile WiMAX is ready in U.K.

Alvarion and MLL Telecom have concluded that the U.K. is ready for widespread rollouts of mobile WiMAX technology following a network trial in Maidstone in July 2008 that saw a variety of applications ranging from public-safety applications to mobile data, VoIP and video streaming successfully tested on the system.

The pilot network was deployed for the Mobile WiMAX Acceleration Group (M-WAG), a consortium of companies that joined together to create an ecosystem for mobile WiMAX and prove out a business case before Ofcom auctioned 2.6 GHz spectrum, an action that has been delayed many times and now is expected to happen in 2010.

"We have been proactively managing the network on a 24x7 basis and found it to be extremely stable. With the right sort of planning and design expertise, WiMax is now ready for mainstream use," concluded Eddie Minshull, chief executive officer of MLL Telecom, in V3.co.uk.

Alvarion's technology was used for the network with MLL building and managing it.  

Mobile WiMAX was once thought to be a shoo-in for the U.K. market, but Ofcom has delayed the 2.6 GHz auction so many times that a 2010 auction will now see a plan that bundles the 2.6 GHz band and digital dividend spectrum, which is similar to the 700 MHz band in the U.S., into one big auction next year. With the delay, Long Term Evolution has now moved significantly closer to commercial rollout than when the 2.6 GHz auction originally was planned.

For more:
- see V3.co.uk [1]

Related articles:
UK planning one big 4G spectrum auction [2] in 2010
Airspan, Freedom4 demo WiMAX roaming [3] on different spectrum bands
UK provider ready for big WiMAX deployment [4]