Alcatel today said it is opening a testing facility in Seoul, South Korea, with carrier KT to conduct tests of its new WiMAX and WiBRO equipment.

The tests will focus on technologies based on IEEE 802.16e, the international standard from which both Mobile WiMAX and its Korean counterpart derive. Alcatel will supply its base station and core infrastructure for the project, while KT will link the lab to its R&D center in Seoul to test fixed/mobile convergence.

KT has already committed to rolling out WiBRO services using Alcatel gear in 2006, but a particular focus of their partnership appears to be developing WiBRO into an international standard. Though they are both based on 802.11e, WiMAX and WiBRO are not necessarily interoperable. However, there has been a major push among WiBRO vendors to have many of same specifications in WiBRO included in the WiMAX standard and to produce equipment that can be both WiBRO and WiMAX certified.