Softbank picks Motorola for mobile WiMax trial

Japanese telecommunications carrier Softbank has tapped Motorola to supply a mobile WiMax trial network in Tokyo, the companies said Tuesday.

The network is scheduled to be operational by September, when a five-month trial of the technology will begin. Mobile WiMax technology is based on the IEEE802.16e standard and allows for data transmission of up to 15Mbps over distances up to several tens of kilometers.

During the trial Softbank will evaluate the technology's suitability for providing mobile Internet service and look at issues such as throughput, base station range and handovers between access points. Motorola will supply an end-to-end trial network consisting of five access points and 25 prototype mobile WiMax handheld devices, it said.

The trial is one of several in Japan related to mobile WiMax. Softbank's two rivals in the cellular market, NTT DoCoMo and KDDI, are also testing the technology this year while simultaneously looking at ways of increasing the data throughput on their conventional cell phone networks. In addition, two new cellular carriers are due to start operation later this year or early next year and will initially focus their attention on the mobile data networking market.

Commercial mobile WiMax has already begun in neighboring South Korea. KT Corp. and SK Telecom both began offering a limited commercial service in Seoul in July. That service is being promoted under the brand name WiBro and offers data speeds of up to 1Mbps to users travelling as fast as 120 kilometers per hour.