While the rest of the world waits for fixed WiMax interoperability testing, the South Koreans are pushing ahead with their home-grown mobile variant of the wireless MAN technology.

Local press reports say that Samsung Corp. has now demonstrated handoff between WiBro basestations at speeds of up to 80 MPH and intends to debut the new technology at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in November.

In contrast, official interoperability testing of fixed WiMax products by the WiMAX Forum in Spain is not now expected to start until October this year (see WiMax Waits on Testing).

So what is Samsung's hurry? After all, WiBro is derived from the 802.16e specification that forms the basis of mobile WiMax, and WiBro is expected to be very similar to the final mobile specification, although that hasn't yet been ratified (see The WiMax LeapFrog).

In a nutshell, Samsung wants to grab an early advantage in the mobile wireless broadband market, and particularly ensure that it has the jump on Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC), which is arguably the main company driving the WiMax market.

The president of Samsung, Lee Ki-tae, told the Korea Times as much on Monday, saying he didn't want to see "Intel Inside" the next generation of communications terminals.

"We will lead the standard with WiBro," Lee says.

— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Unstrung