Alvarion today said that Deutsche Telekom has begun a fixed wireless trial using the vendor’s BreezeMAX 3500 base station, which the vendor is submitting to the WiMAX Forum for certification.

Though the trial is small in scope, targeting 100 customers unreachable with traditional DSL service, a successful conclusion could provide a big boost in fixed WiMAX’s international legitimacy. While many smaller carriers and wireless ISPs have committed to deploying the first generation of WiMAX equipment standardized under the IEEE’s 802.16d specification, many of the larger global carriers have expressed more interest in WiMAX’s later evolution 802.16e, which adds not only mobility but also greater capacity to the technology.

In the U.S. many carriers like Sprint have thrown their lot in with Mobile WiMAX, while others like Verizon and BellSouth are conducting trials with proprietary broadband wireless technologies. Both AT&T and Qwest have said they will launch their own trials using pre-certified WiMAX gear this year, but neither has named a specific vendor.

Carriers, especially large ones, may be cautious in their approach to fixed WiMAX due to the limited time window in which the technology will be viable. According toYankee Group analyst Lindsay Schroth, that window will be confined to the time fixed WiMAX achieves the economies of scale that will make it cheaper to deploy than proprietary solutions and the time Mobile WiMAX takes off. Once Mobile WiMAX is on par with its fixed counterpart in price, carriers will have no reason to deploy the latter, she said.

“A lot of people don’t seem to realize that Mobile WiMAX doesn’t just add mobility its also adds superior capacity,” Schroth said. “It’s a superior technology.”

Alvarion said DT’s fixed WiMAX trial is under its T-Com fixed line unit, which provides wireline broadband and voice service primarily in Germany, but also in Hungary, Croatia and Slovakia through subsidiary telcos. Siemens is acting as the overall systems integrator for the experiment, leveraging the OEM agreement it signed with Alvarion last year. The two vendors have rolled out base stations in two communities near the former German capitol of Bonn Swisttal and St. Augustine, both of which are unable to receive DSL service. DT expects the trial to run through March of 2006, after which the European giant will evaluate the technology as a possible wireline alternative.

In other WiMAX news, Wavesat today announced an OEM deal with broadband wireless vendor WaveIP, which will use Wavesat’s WiMAX Evolutive chipset in its upcoming OFDMax systems. WaveIP said it expects to build base stations and CPEs using the Wavesat chip over the 2.5 GHz, 3.5 GHz, 5.8 GHz and 700 MHz frequencies after the chip is ready for commercial production in the fourth quarter of this year. While the WiMAX Forum doesn’t certify individual chipsets, equipment containing Wavesat’s silicon has been submitted to the Forum’s labs for certification.