WiMAX Companies: On Their Marks, Ready To Go; Leading Vendors Plan to Leverage WiMAX Forum Certification to Drive Overall Indust

Leading WiMAX equipment and semiconductor vendors with
products poised to receive an official WiMAX certification stamp from
the WiMAX Forum are preparing for a fast rollout of their newly
certified products.
   In August, Airspan Networks (Nasdaq:AIRN), Aperto Networks, Proxim
(Nasdaq:YDIW), Sequans and Wavesat delivered their respective WiMAX
solutions to Cetecom Labs, in Malaga, Spain, for conformance and
interoperability testing. This critical exercise ensures the stability
of the test suite and readiness of the various solutions for formal
conformance and radio testing. With this essential step completed,
formal conformance and interoperability testing will begin later this
month.
   The products that pass both protocol and radio conformance, then
interoperability testing, will be tagged "WiMAX Forum Certified(TM)"
for IEEE 802.16-2004. More importantly, certification will enable
these companies to begin "risk-free" deployment of their newly
certified products.
   "The imminent WiMAX certification for the first wave of WiMAX
products is an important achievement for the WiMAX industry," said
Adlane Fellah, Senior Analyst with Maravedis, adding, "those WiMAX
vendors who have plenty of WiMAX Forum Certified(TM) products ready
for shipment will be rewarded with a first-to-market advantage."
   The new, standards-based WiMAX products, built predominantly with
off-the-shelf components, are expected to lower the cost of vendor
equipment to service providers, ultimately serving as a catalyst to
ignite the global market demand for WiMAX solutions.
   "The certification and rollout of the first WiMAX Forum
Certified(TM) products will capture the attention of existing and
soon-to-be wireless broadband operators and service providers," said
Lindsay Schroth, Yankee Group senior analyst. "This milestone is
likely to help accelerate the buying decisions of a number of
fence-sitters."

   For additional information on the imminent availability of WiMAX
Forum Certified(TM) products please contact the following vendors.