WiMAX VOIP

Rethink IT, August, 2005

VoIP will not be an out-of-the-box application for most first stage WiMAX equipment, but progress is being made rapidly in this area. We have already seen Airspan acquiring Arelnet in order to incorporate VoIP into its equipment without the need for expensive add-ons.

This week saw some more interesting moves, including a collaboration between Soma Networks and Broadsoft. Soma makes a broadband wireless platform that can support W-CDMA or WiMAX, but is increasingly focusing on the 802.16 market. Its system is now interoperable with Broadsoft's Broadworks, giving it a VoIP function.

Broadworks is a VoIP application platform that manages call routing and provides a number of core web-enabled telephony services including voicemail, call waiting, conferencing, and auto-attendant functions. Soma will offer a fully integrated VoIP wireless broadband gateway, which combines a SIP User Agent, analog terminal adapter, wireless broadband modem and Wi-Fi route into a single unit.

The BroadWorks solution is already being used by some pre-WiMAX service providers including Azulstar in New Mexico, NextWeb in California and WisperTel in Colorado. The last two offer VoIP through partnerships with CommPartners, whose service is hosted by BroadWorks.

Another prominent US pre-WiMAX ISP, TowerStream, has formed an alliance with Bandwidth.com, a nationwide provider of VoIP services, which will distribute the TowerStream wireless service in major cities. TowerStream has focused its direct sales on enterprises looking for TI alternatives in core metro areas like New York, but has always planned to broaden its reach to new territories and VoIP, and eventually consumers, through resellers, once the technology and economics were right.

"Our partnership with TowerStream will enable us to offer customers our first pre-WiMAX solution that provides an extremely affordable option for those looking for an alternative broadband solution," said Bandwidth.com's president, David Morken.