The IEEE 802.16 has been accepted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as the sixth technology that it has accepted as a 3G wireless standard. The move has caused celebration in both the WiMAX and WiBro communities - both of which are based on 802.16 variations.
WiMAX/WiBro/802.16 join rival technologies W-CDMA, CDMA-2000 and TD -SCDMA in the ITU's IMT-2000 3G spectrum standard.
Technically the ITU has accepted what it has termed "IMT-2000 OFDMA TDD WMAN," a specification "based on a normative reference to IEEE Std 802.16. In other words, IEEE Std 802.16 is now part of the IMT-2000 family. WMAN, is short for "wireless metropolitan area network," which is the real name for 802.16, as set by the IEEE. Put another way, the ITU didn't accept WiMAX. It accepted WMAN. WiMAX, as defined by the WiMAX Forum, is "based upon the harmonized IEEE 802.16/ETSI HiperMAN standard.
South Korea's WiBRO is a mobile form wireless broadband also based on 802.16 and that may even some day be compatible with what's emerging as mobile WiMAX.
Indeed, even Ambassador Richard M. Russell, the U.S. Representative to the World
Qualcomm has fought hard to keep 802.16 away from ITU acceptance whereas Intel has spent a large fortune promoting the technology so that it could break what it sees as Qualcomm's stranglehold on 3G.
One little caveat in the ITU action that at least some observers noted is that what the ITU approved was 802.16 as a Time Division Duplex (TDD) technology. That's fine for the attempt to craft a mobile WiMAX, which is based on TDD. However, the ITU didn't accept 802.16 for use in Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) bands, which account for an estimated 80 percent or more of all the licensed frequencies in the world.
On the other hand, the ITU approval specified OFDMA - Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access - the first time the ITU's done that. Many in the industry believe OFDMA will be a key technology included in the standardization of 4G wireless technology.
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