While the entire WiMAX industry is eagerly awaiting the first rounds of mobile certification this month, Beceem has sought certification from a more unlikely source: Microsoft. The CPE and chipset maker announced today it has received Windows Hardware Quality Lab (WHQL) certification from the software giant, insuring its WiMAX chipsets and drivers are compatible with Microsoft’s pervasive operating system.

Beceem will have to pass the WiMAX Forum trials like everyone else in order to market a WiMAX-certified product, but it’s already preparing for the bigger picture of future sales and integration opportunities. The fact remains that Mobile WiMAX will primarily be a laptop-driven service—at least in its first iterations—and the majority of the world’s laptops run on a Windows OS.

Being WHQL certified does little good for the vendor right now since WiMAX is still a grand business plan without any actual products, but the first wave of certification is expected to be completed in the first quarter. And Beceem is targeting the second half of 2007 to rollout its first commercial WiMAX CPEs as well as embed its chipsets in other vendors products, making support for Windows crucial. Other vendors, however, can probably afford to wait. The first WiMAX wave is expected to target the 2.3 GHz bands used specifically in Korea, a market that Beceem is focused on closely with its products being used in the current WiBro trials. Many other vendors have said they plan to wait for the second wave of certification—expected to begin this coming summer—which will encompass a broader range of frequency bands as well as test enhanced features like smart antenna technologies.