Friday, February 16, 2007

3GSM: EYEING THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM :: RCR Wireless News

dding to the somewhat surreal nature of this year’s 3GSM World Congress was the presence of Sprint Nextel Corp.’s CTO Barry West, who headlined a panel discussion on WiMAX technology.

(Nothing against West or Sprint Nextel, but the only wireless technology the carrier is not currently using or planning to use is GSM, the technology that gives the 3GSM World Congress its name.)

Described by some at the conference as the elephant in the room, WiMAX made a small but entertaining presence at the show, with several sessions having at least one question about the technology. WiMAX has made headway outside of Europe but appears to be having a more difficult time in the heavily regulated EU environment.

The 3GSM WiMAX session included brief presentations by Jake McLeod, principal vice president and CTO of Bechtel Communications, who brought a down-home feel to his time on stage, and Hwan Chung, vice president at Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., who provided attendees with the Korean experience with mobile WiMAX. Chung, as is proper for such a high-tech event, also showed off a pocketful of WiMAX devices.