ITU Endorses WiMAX as IMT-2000 Standard

The ITU Radiocommunication Assembly (RA-07) formally recognized WiMAX technology derived from IEEE 802.16 by incorporating it as the sixth terrestrial IMT-2000 radio interface standard. This is the first addition to IMT-2000 since the original five were adopted years ago as part of the 3G radio standards being used globally and significantly pushes the technological envelope of IMT-2000 capabilities.



The specific terminology of the IEEE 802.16 standard in ITU-R M.1457 Recommendation is "IMT-2000 OFDMA TDD WMAN".



The ITU said its decision will help facilitate delivery of broadband wireless services at lower cost and include multiple wireless broadband Internet services, including VoIP.



Proposals to the forthcoming World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-07) starting next week in Geneva that will be requesting additional spectrum for the deployment of the IMT 3G-type systems worldwide will take into account the new IMT-2000 OFDMA TDD WMAN standards derived from the IEEE 802.16 mobile component.

http://www.itu.int