NextWave Wireless is making progress with its end-to-end mobile multimedia technology strategy for WiMAX. The San Diego company and Taiwanese WiMAX operator Global Mobile have inked a deal to trial NextWave’s technology, with possible commercial rollout next year.
Global Mobile will use NextWave’s MXtv mobile multicast and broadcast technology for mobile TV, interactive media services and digital audio. This is the first carrier deal NextWave has announced since launching MXtv in March. The agreement was announced at the WiMAX Expo in Taipei.
Craig Miller, marketing vice president for semiconductors in NextWave’s mobile products division, said the deal with Global Mobile will use all of NextWave’s technologies. That includes WiMAX base stations and access service network gateways, software from the company’s PacketVideo subsidiary, and NextWave’s chipsets for mobile devices.
The Global Mobile deal, which may also involve a consortium of other Taiwanese WiMAX operators, will help accelerate WiMAX globally as well as provide validation of the technology’s ability to provide multimedia services, Miller said.
There likely will be several different devices, Miller said, with news on those coming later this summer. NextWave has been demonstrating its MXtv platform on a personal media player-type device but Miller says Global Mobile will want a variety.