Moto tapped for Japan WiMAX trial

Motorola today said it has been contracted by Japanese wireless operator Softbank for the deployment of a trial WiMAX 802.16e network in Tokyo.

Motorola is supplying an end to end network including five access points and 25 prototype WiMAX-enabled mobile handheld devices.

Expected to begin in September, the five-month trial will focus on analysing the performance of WiMAX in the 2.5GHz spectrum with regards to throughput and range, as well as the speed of network handovers between access points.

Softbank acquired Vodafone Japan in April and has more than 26 million fixed-line and mobile customers in Japan.