The first Mobile WiMAX field testing in Finland has been carried out in Savonlinna. Part of a larger Mobile WiMAX technology study initiated by ten Finnish broadband operators, the field test was run by local telephone company SPY and consultancy company Omnitele in collaboration with network company Daimler Finland. The equipment used in the field tests were Alvarion's 4Motion solution with its IEEE 802.16e compliant BreezeMax as radio access network platform. The Mobile WiMAX pilot network was hosted by Savonlinna Telephone Company (SPY).
SPY currently offers fixed WiMAX broadband services in both rural and urban areas to private households, businesses and summer residents. A Mobile WiMAX network was set up for testing purposes in the city centre. The field trial included measuring data transfer rates in different radio environments, handover, response times and coverage.
The Mobile WiMAX project was commissioned by ten Finnish broadband service providers and supported by Omnitele Ltd, a Finnish wireless communications consulting firm. The project aimed at giving a comprehensive view of WiMAX technology and the current market situation, in order to position WiMAX in the technology portfolio of the operators in the coming years. Omnitele acted in the role of project planner and independent supervisor of the field testing.
"The target of the field testing was to test the performance and functionality of a Mobile WiMAX system from both an operator and end users points of view," said Senior Consultant Jouni Salmi of Omnitele. "Alvarion proved to be the only vendor ready to provide the equipment needed and willingness to support the unbiased testing in a real network environment proposed by this project. The most anticipated feature of the 802-16e system being full mobility, this was naturally one of the key features to which we were giving special attention during the tests. In the Alvarion system both intra and inter base station handovers worked flawlessly. Handovers were seamless, totally invisible for the common user. In addition, downloads rates of 6 Mbit/s were achieved with very low latency times. Even mission critical voice applications such as SIP, as well as video streaming, were functioning fully to our satisfaction."