MOSCOW -- Yota which provides fast wireless Internet access services based upon the Mobile WiMAX (4G) technology, together with its partner, Samsung Electronics, has started testing the next version of the Mobile WiMAX technology — Release 2.0 (IEEE 802.16m standard).

The 802.16m standard is the release 2.0 of the broadband Mobile WiMAX access technology. It is also the most probable candidate for the new commercial standard among all of the communication technologies of the so-called IMT-Advanced (advanced IMT-2000) generation. The data transfer speed in the Mobile WiMAX Release 2.0 networks is more than four times faster than in the present Mobile WiMAX (802.16e) networks. Such speed is achieved by using the Multi-User MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) technological solution which raises the efficiency of radio band utilization. It is expected that 802.16m would have higher performance than the competing 3GPP LTE standard.

The Mobile WiMAX Release 2.0 provides full backward compatibility with the Mobile WiMAX Release 1.0 (802.16e) solutions. Thereby the existing Mobile WiMAX operators can convert to the 802.16m technology with little expenses, just by updating several circuit plate units and the software of their base stations. The present Mobile WiMAX Release 1.0 devices are also fully compatible with the base stations that will be developed in the future.

As the BoD members of the standardizing WiMAX Forum organization and as the Mobile WiMAX industry leaders (in the fields of technology development and network exploitation) Yota and Samsung play an important role in setting-up of Mobile WiMAX Release 2.0 technological specifications and in the global promotion of this new technology. The 802.16m-based solution by Samsung will be demonstrated during the international ITU Telecom World 2009 fair in Geneva. This solution comprises the Samsung U-RAS Flexible base stations with upgraded modules, the existing Mobile WiMAX devices and the prototype of the new device developed for the Mobile WiMAX Release 2.0. The purpose of the demonstration is to showcase the full backward compatibility between the Mobile WiMAX Release 2.0 (802.16m) and the Mobile WiMAX Release 1.0 (802.16e) technologies.

“The new Mobile WiMAX version, the Release 2.0, is the natural technological evolution of the standard which brings the new opportunities for the development of the new online multimedia services, — emphasizes Yota CEO Denis Sverdlov. — Many of our clients, for example, watch movies using the 4G Internet. However, currently, to watch the HD movie you have to download it first. With WiMAX 802.16m one will be able to watch the HD-quality movie on the big screen on-line. And this is just one of the applications of the new technology: Mobile WiMAX Release 2.0 will bring to life new services that not only end users but even developers can now hardly imagine. Even more, the capacity of new base stations is many times more than of the current ones. This will allow us to provide services to more clients using the same number of base stations. To offer new solutions tomorrow we have to invest efforts today.”

Yota plans to install the first in the world Mobile WiMAX Release 2.0 solution from Samsung on its network by the end of 2010. Yota was among the first in the world to launch commercial Mobile WiMAX network services (in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Ufa). Yota continues to develop Mobile WiMAX networks in other Russian cities and in other countries. Together with the U. S. WiMAX service provider Clearwire and the Japanese UQ Communications, Yota has started the development of the international WiMAX roaming.

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