TOKYO – Nortel and Toshiba Corporation said Monday they are working with the Japanese government on a next-generation wireless trial using WiMAX technology to deliver mobile high-speed broadband services in the northern Tohoku region.
The trial, being conducted by the Tohoku Bureau of Telecommunications, a regional arm of Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), is part of MIC’s ‘Next Generation Broadband Strategy 2010.’ The vision is targeting anywhere, anytime connectivity for all citizens by 2010 through universal broadband services supporting Internet access, VOIP, video conferencing, interactive gaming and other high-bandwidth services.
MIC selected Ishinomaki, a port city on Honshu Island in Tohoku’s Miyagi Prefecture, as the site for the trial because of the limited availability of broadband access. "Through our collaboration with both MIC and Toshiba on this trial, Nortel’s WiMAX solutions will be applied to help MIC further its objectives for universal broadband services throughout the nation regardless of location or the challenges of difficult terrain," said Nick Vreugdenhil, president, Japan, Nortel.
Nortel will provide base stations and terminals for the trial as well as engineering services. Toshiba Corporation will handle system integration and field tests. Nortel base stations will be installed in public facilities within the test area to allow close monitoring of changes and fluctuations in coverage caused by varying environmental conditions and the use of high-bandwidth applications like VOIP or multimedia.
The Nortel solution is fully IEEE802.16-e compliant and will run on the 2.5GHz frequency band. It supports hundreds of multi-megabit users per cell site and supports both fixed and mobile WiMAX applications.
Currently, Nortel is trialing its WiMAX solutions with a number of carriers around the world, notably in Taiwan, Germany, Canada, Greece, Russia and Mexico.
