Following delays in its certification testing program — including postponing its 802.16-2004 standard plugfest from January to July 2005 — the WiMAX Forum appears to be regaining its footing. The forum now says it is on track to meet its mid-2005 target for launching the WiMAX Forum Certified program.

Late last month, the industry association selected Cetecom Spain as its official certification laboratory for the WiMAX Forum Certified program. An independent testing body based in Malaga, Spain, Cetecom will test and certify WiMAX Forum member companies' products to guarantee they meet with WiMAX Forum conformance and interoperability standards. The forum's planned plugfest — i.e., the process by which broadband wireless gear based on the IEEE's 802.16-2004 standard is run through interoperability testing to determine its certification as WiMAX equipment — will now take place in Spain this summer.

Gordon Antonello, senior technical adviser for broadband wireless equipment vendor Wi-LAN and chairman of the WiMAX Forum's technical working group, blamed the plugfest's delay on difficulties in selecting and preparing a testing lab, ultimately deciding an independent lab like Cetecom would best deliver what the group required. According to Fernando Hardasmal, Cetecom Spain's deputy general manager, the agency is already working on implementing the test profiles that will go into effect in July.

Some vendors seem to have grown tired of waiting around for the certification trials, however — Alvarion, Aperto Networks, Wi-LAN and other firms are already marketing products they're calling “WiMAX-class gear.” And despite the hiccups, industry enthusiasm for WiMAX remains strong: At a Wireless Communications Association conference last month, many broadband wireless equipment vendors were already looking past fixed versions of WiMAX technology like 802.16-2004 to its mobility-enabled successor 802.16e, even though 802.16e-certified equipment is not expected to hit the market until late 2006.