KDDI's Addition to Board Indicative of Strong Global Commitment to Wide-scale Rollout of WiMAX Services
SAN JOSE, Calif. July 31, 2006 The WiMAX Forum, a non-profit organization comprised of almost 400 companies committed to the open interoperability of products delivering broadband wireless services, today named Dr. Hideo Okinaka of KDDI Corporation to its Board of Directors. As a strong contributor to the WiMAX Forum, KDDI's addition to the board of directors is indicative of the overwhelming support from operators and wireless market leaders around the globe that WiMAX is the next evolution for delivering personal broadband services.
"KDDI is a leader in telecommunications in Japan and I am pleased that KDDI has decided to join the WiMAX Forum Board," said WiMAX Forum President Ron Resnick. "We look forward to KDDI's expanded involvement both as a contributor and an operator committed to deploy WiMAX services in Japan," Resnick continued, "As a leading communications provider, KDDI has already proven its ability to deliver the most advanced services to its subscribers through state-of-the-art networks."
"As part of the WiMAX Forum, KDDI is working to realize interoperability of broadband wireless products including the network elements, which enables the seamless handover across access networks," said Dr. Hideo Okinaka, Vice President and General Manager of Standards and Spectrum Division. "In addition, KDDI is committed to contributing to the WiMAX industry by bringing our robust experience in broadband service offerings and network deployments with the 3G mobile and fixed-line broadband portfolio." KDDI plans to promote the opportunity for network operators to incorporate WiMAX device roaming across operator and national boundaries.
In addition to KDDI, the WiMAX Forum board comprises executives from Airspan Networks Inc., Alvarion Ltd., Aperto Networks, AT&T, British Telecom, Fujitsu, Intel Corporation, Korea Telecom, Motorola, Samsung, Sprint Nextel, and ZTE Corporation. The WiMAX Forum continues to grow, with a current membership approaching 400 companies. Under the WiMAX Forum umbrella, these companies collaborate to help deploy wireless broadband globally and make mobile WiMAX a leader in the next frontier for personal broadband services.
About WiMAX Forum
The WiMAX Forum is an industry-led, non-profit corporation formed to help promote and certify the compatibility and interoperability of broadband wireless products using the IEEE 802.16 and ETSI HiperMAN wireless MAN specifications. The forum's goal is to accelerate the introduction of these devices into the marketplace. WiMAX Forum CertifiedTM products will be fully interoperable and support Metropolitan Broadband Fixed, Portable and Mobile Applications. For more information about the WiMAX Forum and its activities, please visitwww.wimaxforum.org.
WiMAX Forum and WiMAX Forum Certified are trademarks of the WiMAX Forum.
About KDDI
KDDI is a Japanese telecommunication operator and the only company in the domestic market that provides diversified communications services, from fixed to mobile or from telephony to broadband data. It serves approximately 9 million subscribers in the fixed line business and over 25 million subscribers in the cellular mobile services under the "au" or "TuKa" brand. In FY2005, the consolidated revenue recorded 3,060 billion JYen by 73 group companies and approximately 14,000 employees. At KDDI, aiming at becoming a "ubiquitous solution company" that supports the ubiquitous networking society, aggressive efforts are underway towards the realization of leading-edge communications services as well as the fixed-mobile converged network deployment.
