OFDMA pioneer welcomes WiMAX inclusion in 3G IMT-2000

The announcement by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) that WiMAX has been approved as a 3G IMT-2000 standard was welcomed by Israeli company Runcom Technologies Ltd.

Runcom pioneered the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) technology in 1997, and was the first to introduce the technology as a contribution to the IEEE.802.16 standard in 2001. The IEEE802.16 standard chaired by Roger Marks voted for Runcom's contribution as the basis for the OFDMA version of the standard, which later evolved into the IEEE802.16-2005 standard, ratified in 2005. The technology is now known worldwide as Mobile WiMAX.

In a white paper entitled "WiMAX and IMT-2000," the WiMAX Forum stated that "including IP-OFDMA (Mobile WiMAX) within the IMT-2000 family of radio transmission technologies will put mobile WiMAX on a comparable worldwide footing with EV-DO, HSPA and other recent and planned enhancements to 3G technology. This will offer operators an additional migration path to consider as they strive to add network capabilities to support a larger suite of value-added broadband services."

The agreement that was reached in an ITU meeting significantly escalates the opportunities for global deployment, especially within the 2.5-2.69GHz band, and will bring the potential reach to a total population significantly higher than the 2.7 billion people WiMAX reaches at present.

"We are proud and honoured by the fact that the OFDMA technology that we proposed to the IEEE.802.16e standard is gaining worldwide recognition as the wireless technology of the future, with a magnificent potential," said Zion Hadad founder, CEO and chairman of Runcom Technologies.

"Runcom's initial OFDMA contribution to the IEEE802.16 standard and especially Dr Zion Hadad's involvement were crucial in the evolution of the standard that was finally ratified by adding contributions from many other companies," Roger Marks, chairman of the IEEE802.16 standardization body.