Liberty Global and R&D company CableLabs have become the latest companies to join the MulteFire Alliance.
Work is continuing on developing a specification for the “LTE-like” technology, which is based 3GPP’s Licence Assisted Access technology but uses unlicensed or shared spectrum.
The alliance has targeted releasing the specification by the end of 2016. MulteFire has said the technology will co-exist fairly with Wi-Fi and other technologies.
Balan Nair, CTO of Liberty Global, said: “Wireless connectivity has become critically important for consumers. By joining the MulteFire Alliance, we are driving the future of wireless for our customers.”
Rob Alderfer, Vice-President of Technology Policy at CableLabs, added: “We appreciate that the Alliance is committed to transparency and collaboration, given the importance of unlicensed spectrum to broadband access. As we move toward ever greater sharing of scarce spectrum resources, reliable coexistence across technologies is essential as we continue to innovate. It’s what we believe is the most critical aspect of the Alliance, and one that will be important as the industry moves toward 5G standards.”
Other members of the alliance include Ericsson, Nokia and Qualcomm.
[Read more: MulteFire needs device and business support to take off]
Mazen Chmaytelli, MulteFire Alliance president, said: “Operators in the cable industry are ideal partners in our effort to develop new wireless technology and we are pleased to have CableLabs and Liberty Global join us. The Alliance is open for broad, global participation, and since one of our goals is to drive our work into global standards, we are establishing liaisons with 3GPP, CBRS Alliance and IEEE to keep them apprised of our progress.”