Samsung announces plans to advance commercialization of WiMAX 2

Samsung Electronics today unveiled its vision to drive the future of mobile broadband at WiMAX Forum Congress Asia, the industry-leading WiMAX conference, in Taipei, Taiwan. Samsung is committed to delivering the next generation of Mobile WiMAX technology to expand the market position of Mobile WiMAX as a visionary 4G service.

WiMAX 2, based on the IEEE 802.16m standard set by International Telecommunications Union (ITU), offers much faster mobile data communications speeds, much lower latency and vastly increased Voice over IP (VoIP) capacity. Current Mobile WiMAX services are based on IEEE 802.16e.

Samsung has unveiled its plan for 802.16m deployment in order to support its current customer base and offer an unrivalled solution to new customers looking to invest in today’s mobile broadband market opportunities. Samsung aims to deploy WiMAX 2 in 2011, following the finalization of the ITU’s 802.16m standardization.

In his WiMAX Forum Asia Keynote address, Mr. Woonsub Kim, Executive Vice President and Head of the Telecommunication Systems Business, Samsung Electronics, stressed “Mobile WiMAX is now the most widely deployed, widely used 4G technology on the planet. We firmly believe that Mobile WiMAX is the strongest solution for meeting the explosive demand for mobile data.”

“In both standardization and commercialization, Mobile WiMAX has marked clear milestones ahead of any other 4G technology candidates,” he added. “More than 150 operators are currently providing Mobile WiMAX services to over 120 different devices. It is evident that Mobile WiMAX has a robust and popular ecosystem and continues to spread across the globe.”

Mr. Kim continued, “Based on this well-structured ecosystem, the Mobile WiMAX industry has been preparing the 802.16m standard. Today, Samsung is taking the lead in forming an initiative to accelerate commercialization of WiMAX 2 with the leading chipset, equipment and device manufacturers.”

Currently, Samsung is deploying Mobile WiMAX networks with 26 operators in 22 countries, including Clearwire in the United States, UQ Communications in Japan, Yota in Russia and YTL Communications in Malaysia. With Samsung’s Mobile WiMAX solution, more than 1.4 Million subscribers enjoy a much higher volume of data service at a lower cost.