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WiMAX Forum launches Open Retail Initiative to allow retail sales of WiMAX CPE
Irene Chen, Taipei; Adam Hwang, DIGITIMES [Wednesday 14 April 2010]
At WiMAX Forum Congress Asia 2010 taking place in Taipei from April 13-14, the WiMAX Forum announced the launch of Open Retail Initiative, its ongoing global program to make WiMAX CPE devices certified by its designated laboratories available for retail sale. The WiMAX Forum will have its designated independent laboratories ready to test and certify Open Retail consumer devices based on its standards and requirements, in an end-to-end interoperability environment in May 2010, the organization indicated. The designated testing/certification laboratories are AT4 Wireless in the US and Spain, Bureau Veritas ADT and the Telecom Technology Center in Taiwan, China Academy of Telecommunication Research in China and the Telecommunications Technology Association in South Korea as well as a new center in Malaysia to be added in the fall, the organization pointed out. Open Retail Initiative aims to facilitate development and availability of WiMAX CPE by enabling operators of WiMAX networks to minimize costs incurred from in-house interoperability testing as well as shorten time to market for vendors, WiMAX Forum president and chairman Ron Resnick pointed out. Currently, 400-500 WiMAX CPE devices have been launched globally and the number is increasing, Resnick indicated. An estimated 3.18 million WiMAX consumer devices were shipped in the global market in 2009, and shipments in 2010 are forecast at six million units, Resnick noted. 
WiMAX Forum president and chairman Ron Resnick
Photo: Terry Ku, Digitimes, April 2010
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