After delays in its certification testing program recently were acknowledged, the WiMAX Forum has re-scheduled its 802.16-2004 standard plugfest to take place in Spain in July.

The WiMAX Forum selected Cetecom Spain as its official certification laboratory for the WiMAX Forum Certified program. Cetecom, an independent testing body based in Malaga, Spain, with several other regional offices, will test and certify WiMAX Forum member companies' products to ensure they meet WiMAX Forum conformance and interoperability standards.

Cetecom Spain also has served as the Wi-Fi Alliance's certification testing group, and has conducted tests related to 3GPP mobile standards and Bluetooth, among other technologies.

WiMAX Forum President Ron Resnick said in a statement, "Preparation of the test lab is the last step in the process before we begin accepting equipment for certification. The lion's share of work has been done--we are in the home stretch."

Fernando Hardasmal, Cetecom Spain's deputy general manager, said the agency is now working on implementing the test profiles that will be used beginning in July. In addition to the IEEE standards certification, Cetecom also will test conformance to the ETSI HiperMAN standard.

The WiMAX Forum said that it will meet its goal of mid-2005 as the target date for launching the WiMAX Forum Certified program. However, several forum members during the last year had indicated that certification testing would begin this month, and they recently acknowledged that the program was experiencing delays.

Resnick added, "As an industry association, our role is to drive standardization and certification--we do not launch products or build networks. But based on what we are hearing from our member companies, we believe service provider lab trials could begin in the third quarter of 2005, followed by commercial trials in the fourth quarter. We are optimistic that networks could be commercially deployed by the first quarter of 2006."