MALAGA, Spain--Officials from the WiMAX Forum and ETSI have signed a formal agreement at the WiMAX Forum's quarterly members meeting here to cooperate on development of common standards and certification tests, and share other information to help WiMAX overcome regulatory, technical and geographic requirements on the way to mass deployment.

"This is the beginning of what will be a long-term acceleration of our efforts in Europe and other regions," said Ron Resnick, chairman of the WiMAX Forum. "ETSI can help us with the experience that it has working with groups such as 3GPP." ETSI also will help the WiMAX Forum lobby regional and national regulatory groups across Europe for approval and allocation of spectrum for WiMAX.

The WiMAX Forum first approached ETSI about working together almost three years ago. The group is based in Sophia Antipolis, France, and has 520 member companies from 55 different countries around the world.

"ETSI and the WiMAX Forum have a common interest in cooperating for testing, standards development and regulatory activities to provide the necessary spectrum," said Bernd Friedrichs, chairman of ETSI's Broadband Radio Access Network committee.