Hamilton gets North America’s first mobile WiMAX trial

Primus Telecommunications Canada Inc. and its subsidiary Mipps Inc. launched a mobile WiMAX (802.16e) trial last month in Hamilton - the first of its kind in North America in the 3.5 GHz band. Alcatel-Lucent is the network equipment supplier and is working with some third-party vendors to supply customer-premise equipment such as PCMCIA cards for laptops and desktop terminals. Ted Chislett, president of Primus Canada, tells Report on Wireless that mobile WiMAX is the way of the future and the trial serves to prove what it can do in real life situations. He adds that from a technology perspective the testing will reveal a number of things including how well WiMAX penetrates buildings, how large or small the cell sites have to be, as well as network connectivity when moving from cell site to cell site. Primus Canada, Mipps and Alcatel-Lucent will be paying particularly close attention to how devices react in a mobile and nomadic environment. Chislett explains that the 10-cell site network was built to allow for handoffs when moving from one cell site to another and the trial will evaluate performance both at lower speeds as well as higher speeds along highways. But the main driver of the trial is to test high-speed data connectivity. "Our first focus is going to be on high-speed data, Internet access and things like that but we will be testing Voice over IP as well," Chislett says. Despite all the hype surrounding mobile WiMAX, Chislett maintains that the mobile voice aspect of the trial will be minimal. "Let's face it, we have voice networks that work quite fine and have great coverage," he says. "Maybe that could be something we could offer as an add-on, but that won't be the main driver." While the trial will reveal a number of things about mobile WiMAX from a technology and network perspective, residential and business uses will also form an integral part of the trial. Getting feedback from a variety of users is also key and Hamilton is fertile ground to obtain information. Chislett explains that Hamilton was chosen because it has a broad mix of users: business and residential, institutional (McMaster University), and mobile - a substantial number of commuters. "So the hope was to try and get some feedback from some of those users, how they find it and what their experiences are with coverage inside buildings and the like," he says. Choosing Alcatel-Lucent also gives Primus Canada and Mipps the ability to test a number of new technological features such as adaptive antennas, MIMO and mobility, according to Chislett. "We had to make some estimates as to who we thought would be out there with the equipment sooner so we could do tests and also be able to support us in the long run," he says. "Alcatel-Lucent was certainly one of the players. There are others and we may do tests with other folks as well." If the technology pans out - many expect it to - it will give non-facilities-based providers an alternative to leasing capacity from other companies, and this will be a significant boon to them as they strive to compete with established companies by bundling multiple services together. "If you're a pure reseller, you're buying high-speed Internet at wholesale, and you're local service at wholesale and you just don't have the ability to compete in the bundle," Chislett explains. This is still some time away, but the Primus Canada president is bullish. "We're certainly very optimistic that the technology will prove very promising," he says.

Hamilton gets North America’s first mobile WiMAX trial

News | June 5, 2007

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