Vice president Stuart Carlaw notes that, “The public safety wireless communications market for technology and geographic location has solidified. North America is dominated by P25, while the rest of the world seems set on the European-developed TETRA standard with isolated islands of P25 in the Asia-Pacific region and legacy TETRAPOL in France.”

In the United States, public safety agencies apply for funding grants to obtain the equipment and training they need. This decentralized procurement means that the funding mechanisms do not make coordination easy. In Europe, several blue light networks are funded on a nationwide basis. The European model is also largely privatized: rather than government being the provider of these services, it is private cellular operators; O2 plays this role for the UK’s Airwave system.

Carlaw adds, “First responder terminal vendors see the fragmented, but huge and less mature, US market as the greatest opportunity for the future, although it must be recognized that penetration into this market is difficult due to technology choice and to Motorola’s preeminent market position.”

In a unanimous 5-0 vote Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission approved a plan to combine Sprint’s mobile WiMAX network with Clearwire’s pre-WiMAX network. Google Inc., Intel Corp. and a group of cable companies are contributing investors into the $14.6 billion venture, which will carry Clearwire’s name. The Department of Justice indicated that it will allow the deal to proceed, but will continue to monitor it for anti-competitive practices.

Sprint’s joint venture with Clearwire and investments from Google, Intel and cable companies are cleared to form a national WiMAX network provider in the United States. More on this news can be found at WiMax.com

“The adoption of WiMax technology is a critical part of our current network expansion strategy,” said ERF Wireless CEO, Dr. H. Dean Cubley. Dr. Cubley went on to note that one of the most compelling reasons for deployment of this new licensed frequency band is its ability to eliminate the problems of frequency congestion and interference, particularly in areas where unlicensed spectrum is under heavy usage.

ERF Wireless plans limited deployments using 3.65 GHz spectrum across the states of Texas, New Mexico and Louisiana. Read more about it at WiMax.com

Upon completion, the new network is expected to be one of the largest mobile WiMAX deployments in Europe. Alcatel-Lucent will install the first 130 base station sites in the Puglia and Veneto regions. AriaDSL plans to provide municipalities, businesses and residential users with high-speed Internet access in addition to advanced broadband multimedia services, such as video streaming. A second phase of the project will introduce voice over IP (VoIP) and virtual private network (VPN) services.

Wireless Internet access is planned for 130 locations across Italy with nationwide service for businesses and consumers over time. The complete story is available at WiMax.com

The operator has selected Nortel’s WiMAX network solution as one of the access platforms it will use to bring high-speed Internet to communities. The 3.65 GHz light-licensed spectrum will use 802.16-2004 radios from Airspan for stationary deployments of WiMAX services. A small WiMAX terminal, placed at customers’ homes or businesses, allows them to access the wireless network in the same way they would plug into a wireline network.

Vermont communities will gain access to a fixed wireless network utilizing new 3.65 GHz spectrum. A list of operators using the spectrum and cities with access is available from WiMax.com.

The partners are targeting the first half of 2009 for commercial services, but limited access to spectrum could lengthen plans. Brazil has been a challenging market for microwave wireless in the past. Equipment manufacturers pay high tariffs to import radio gear into the country, which incentivizes vendors that provide manufacturing or final test and assembly in-country.

Partnering with Intel and Motorola, Telefónica is taking 2.5 GHz spectrum for a spin using mobile WiMAX. Read more about this story at WiMax.com

Comstar has deployed Airspan’s WiMAX equipment to create a hybrid network capable of fixed and mobile services. The network uses 24 base stations to cover Yerevan and 18 additional Armenian cities. WiMAX services are offered to commercial and consumer customers featuring high-speed Internet, voice over IP (VoIP), video conferencing and mobile services.

Learn about the event where Comstar UTS presented MiMAX USB devices to government leaders at the unveiling of a nationwide WiMAX network at WiMax.com.

Powered by a Core 2 Duo processor beneath an 11″ multi-touch screen, the tablet can utilize Intel’s mobile WiMAX module for connecting to high-speed Internet outside of the home and hotspot. Other proposed specifications include a solid state drive (SSD), high-definition video playback and a full-size QWERTY keyboard.

See more about Intel’s concept PC slate and how it’s exciting possibilities for future portable applications at WiMax.com

The WiMAX network will initially provide high speed internet access as a wireless alternative for cable modems and DSL. Over time, the service will be expanded to cover entire geographic areas for iCON customers to access the network wherever they are within the coverage areas. The major advantage of WiMAX over wired broadband technologies is that installation and activation is immediate, and does not require any last-mile connection.

More about iCON’s launch of WiMAX in Yerevan, Armenia by January can be found at WiMax.com.

Key applications for the M3 MID include media streaming that require broadband speeds, including interactive gaming, streaming video of user-generated content, video conferencing/chat, and Voice-over-IP (VoIP).

Read more about the Digifriends Mobile WiMAX handheld to focus on video streaming and bandwidth-intensive Internet applications at WiMax.com.