Think Sprint-Nextel Corp., Clearwire Corp. and their cableco partners are the only ones doing big-city WiMAX in North America? Think again. Craig Wireless Ltd. has just deployed WiMAX service in Vancouver, B.C., in the first phase of a network rollout that is expected to serve one million people when completed later this year.
This new deployment is part of a WiMAX contract announced by Craig Wireless and Motorola in September 2009. The system for Vancouver is the first commercial deployment of Motorola's mobile WiMAX technology in Canada, and follows up on an Industry Canada decision to award a Broadband Radio Service License to Craig Wireless for the network.
Motorola is providing its end-to-end WiMAX solution, including base stations, wireless access controllers and an operation and maintenance center (OMC). Motorola also will provide supporting services for network design, planning, installation and optimization for end-to-end integration of the network, which will operate in the 2.5GHz spectrum band.
Motorola’s WiMAX solution is designed to enable rapid implementation of voice over IP (VoIP) and broadband services such as high-speed Internet, video streaming and virtual private network (VPN) access in fixed, nomadic and mobile environments
Craig Wireless is planning future markets, including an “international expansion,” details yet to come.
