WiMAX players sign roaming agreement

The newly formed WiMAX Spectrum Owners Alliance (WiSOA) this week signed the world’s first WiMAX roaming agreement, providing seamless “GSM-like” roaming amongst WiMAX networks, as well as roaming partnerships with global wifi and 3G networks.

WiSOA was founded in September by a handful of early adopters of the technology including, Unwired Australia, Network Plus Mauritius, UK Broadband, Irish Broadband, Austar Australia/Liberty Group, Telecom New Zealand, WiMAX Telecom Group, Enertel, and Woosh Telecom.

WiMAX is also being adopted by Sprint Nextel, KDDI, Softbank, Telmex, AT&T and Vodafone, and has been championed by Intel, Motorola, Samsung, Alcatel-Lucent and Nortel.

The forum has signed up Mach and Trustive to provide roaming services.

Steve Cosser, chairman of WiSOA, said that the group expects convergence between WiMAX, wifi and 3G as Intel, Motorola, Samsung and Nokia look to develop chipsets that all dual and treble connectivity.

“As WiMAX networks are being rapidly deployed around the world, they will play a key role in filling the gaps in areas not covered by wifi and 3G. Our goal in forming this alliance was to ensure that any wireless subscriber could gain broadband access, regardless of where they are,” said Cosser.