Germany WIMAX VoIP - here it comes boys&girls!

Germany Launches WiMAX VoIP

Posted by samc on December 17th, 2007

Motorola today announced that German telecommunications provider, NeckarCom Telekommunikation GmbH, has launched a commercial Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service on a WiMAX network in the Ulm region of Germany.

NeckarCom’s integrated voice and data service was the first 802.16e WiMAX-based offering in Germany and is based on Motorola’s WiMAX technology. NeckarCom is a subsidiary of EnBW Regional AG, the third-largest energy supply company in Germany. NeckarCom is active in the telecommunications sector and primarily markets the fibre infrastructure of EnBW.

Meanwhile, EU media commissioner Viviane Reding has called for comprehensive broadband coverage across Germany. Reding called for available broadcast frequencies to be used for wireless broadband connections, using, for example, Wimax. The transition from analogue to digital television will mean that a range of frequencies will become available over the next three years.

Motorola says it has contracts for 15 commercial WiMAX networks this year. They demonstrated the first live mobile WiMAX 802.16e handoffs between continuous WiMAX cells supporting voice and data during WiMAX World USA in Chicago.

The company says it has:

• Increased to more than 57 the number of WiMAX engagements in 38 countries worldwide, including 44 active trials.
• Is on track to support Sprint/Xohm soft launch in Chicago by year end 2007 and is on schedule with deployment for the planned commercial launch in Q2 2008
• Delivered thousands of access points to customers worldwide and delivered tens of thousands of CPE units or PC cards for customer engagements including trials and commercial deployments currently underway
• Completed the deployment of the first 802.16e commercial WiMAX network in Pakistan for Wateen Telecom. The operator has since launched nationwide commercial services to corporate and consumer markets.
• Unveiled its test WiMAX mobile device and WiMAX chipset which will be embedded in consumer electronic devices to provide mobile Internet access.
• Completed the first phase deployment of two additional commercial WiMAX systems in France and Germany.

There are about 3.3 billion mobile subscribers worldwide, with global mobile penetration now at 50 percent, according to researcher Informa Telecom. Today, about 1.17 billion people worldwide have access to the Internet. The next wave of growth in internet usage will come from people who use wireless devices to access the Internet, says Darren McQueen, vice president, IMS, CDMA and LTE Broadband Access Technologies at Motorola.

source : dailywireless.org