BellSouth’s lab trial of Alcatel’s Evolium 802.16e-based, pre-WiMAX system is likely the first step prior to outdoor tests that could occur sometime in the first quarter next year, according to a BellSouth official.

Mel Levine, director of product management for the wireless services group at BellSouth, said the carrier’s upcoming lab trial of the Alcatel equipment will probably last six to eight weeks and “into the fourth quarter. We typically put equipment through its paces pretty extensively before we do anything else.” The outdoor test will follow the indoor lab trial.

Meanwhile, Levine said BellSouth also will continue to size up other vendors’ 802.16e (also called 802.16-2005) gear for potential trials, and will monitor the WiMAX Forum’s Mobile WiMAX certification and interoperability testing program, which is set to begin later this year.

The lab trial with Alcatel, announced earlier this week, is the direct result of a request-for-information that BellSouth had issued to the vendor community earlier this year. Levine said BellSouth selected Alcatel for the trial because the vendor met the carrier’s parameters for testing, which included capability to operate in the 2.3 Ghz spectrum that BellSouth uses in its current broadband wireless service offering in six markets in the southeast. Coverage, cost and self-installation capability for CPE were among other RFI parameters the company satisfied, Levine said.

BellSouth also said this week that it will be expanding availability of its broadband wireless service to parts of five new markets beginning in the third quarter. Those markets will be mostly rural in nature. “We’re trying to reach customers who don’t already have a broadband service option,” Levine said.