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Good News for Last Mile Carriers and some wireless.
Approval of IEEE Standard 802.16 Sets Stage for Growth of Metropolitan
Area
Networks Using Fixed Broadband Wireless
PISCATAWAY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 7, 2001--

Global Standard for 10 to 66 GHz Wireless Networks Fosters
Economic Alternative for "Last Mile" Access
The Standard Board of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic
Engineers
Standards Association (IEEE-SA) formally approved IEEE Standard 802.16
("Air
Interface for Fixed Broadband Wireless Access Systems") today.

The approval sets the stage for the widespread deployment of 10 to 66
GHz
wireless metropolitan area networks as an economical method of
high-speed
"last-mile" connection to public networks.

The global IEEE 802.16 WirelessMAN(TM) air interface standard is the
first
broadband wireless access standard from an accredited standards body.
It
will be published by January 2002. Until then, the approved draft can
be
found in the IEEE catalog at <http://WirelessMAN.org/published.html.>

"The new WirelessMAN standard is a groundbreaking development that
changes
the landscape for providers and customers of high-speed networks," said
Roger Marks, Chair of the 802.16 Working Group on Broadband Wireless
Access.
"The standard makes highly efficient use of bandwidth and supports
voice,
video and data applications with the quality that customers demand."

The 802.16 standard creates a platform on which to build a broadband
wireless industry using high-rate systems that install rapidly without
extensive metropolitan cable infrastructures. It was created in a
two-year,
open-consensus process that involved hundreds of engineers from the
world's
leading operators and vendors.

The standard enables interoperability among devices from multiple
manufacturers. It includes a medium access control layer (MAC) that
supports
multiple physical layer specifications. The physical layer is optimized
for
bands from 10 to 66 GHz. Extensions to the 2 to 11 GHz bands are
expected to
be completed next summer in the Working Group's 802.16a amendment.

The companion IEEE Standard 802.16.2 ("IEEE Recommended Practice for
Local
and Metropolitan Area Networks - Coexistence of Fixed Broadband
Wireless
Access Systems") was published by IEEE in September 2001. This document
provides guidelines for system deployment and is expected to be a
valuable
source of planning information for operators wishing to deploy IEEE
802.16
systems.

About the IEEE 802.16 Working Group

The IEEE 802.16 Working Group on Broadband Wireless Access has 178
members
and 52 official observers. It operates via an open process to develop
accredited air interface standards and recommended practices for the
global
development and deployment of fixed broadband wireless access systems.
It
meets bimonthly and has a record of rapidly reaching technical
consensus.
The Group's standards provide for high-speed network access to homes
and
enterprises. For more information on the IEEE 802.16 Working Group,
visit
<http://WirelessMAN.org.>

The working group is a unit of the IEEE 802 LAN/MAN Standards
Committee, the
premier transnational forum for wireless networking standardization.
The new
IEEE 802.16 standard joins the widely used family of Ethernet and
wireless
networking standards developed by the committee.

About the IEEE Standards Association

The IEEE Standards Association is an international membership
organization
serving today's industries with a complete portfolio of standards
programs.
The IEEE-SA is a major component of the Institute of Electrical and
Electronic Engineers, the world's largest technical professional
society.
IEEE-SA membership, through the IEEE, promotes the engineering process
by
creating, developing, integrating, sharing and applying knowledge about
electro- and information technologies and sciences for the benefit of
humanity and the profession. For more information on IEEE-SA, visit
<http://standards.ieee.org.>


CONTACT: The IEEE Standards Association
Roger Marks, 303/497-3037
[e-mail]
Dean Chang, 408/719-9977
[e-mail]
Karen McCabe, 732/562-3824
[e-mail]