PORTLAND, Ore. - (Business Wire) The WiMAX Forum today announced the addition of two new members to its Board of Directors: Michael Lai, Chief Executive Officer of Packet One Networks (“P1”), and Dr. Fumio Watanabe, CTO of UQ Communications Inc. Both Packet One and UQ Communications are worldwide leaders in the development and deployment of next generation wireless technology. "We are proud to welcome industry veterans Mr. Lai and Dr. Watanabe to our Board of Directors," said Ron Resnick, president and chairman of the WiMAX Forum. "With over 50 years of combined experience in the wireless industry, both bring a wealth of knowledge and invaluable insight to the Board as we continue to create strategic programs and initiatives that help fulfill the WiMAX Forum mission of providing WiMAX services to anyone, anywhere in the world.”
Michael Lai’s leadership has transformed P1 from a relatively unknown company to a global leader in WiMAX technology. Prior to joining P1, Lai was the CEO of TMNet, the region’s largest Internet service provider. Lai’s tenure there transformed TMNet into a billion-dollar enterprise with over one million subscribers within 18 months.
Passionate in his vision of Broadband for All and a believer of broadband being a right and no longer a privilege, Lai has brought P1 to the global forefront of commercial WiMAX deployment. P1 W1MAX is Malaysia’s leading WiMAX telco and is currently the world’s second largest deployment of an 802.16e 2.3GHz WiMAX network, with more than 100,000 subscribers and growing. Within 14 months of commercial operations P1 has received numerous accolades including Red Herring Asia’s Most Innovative Private Technology Company in 2008 and the MSC Malaysia Asia Pacific ICT Best of Start-Up Companies Award in 2009. Just recently, P1 became the first WiMAX operator in SEA to offer portable WiMAX prepaid plans with W1GGY – the region’s most advanced USB modem, incorporating MIMO smart antenna technology capable of download speeds of up to 10Mbps (currently the fastest USB modem in Malaysia). Please visit http://www.wimaxforum.org/sites/wimaxforum.org/files/P1_case_study_ intel.pdf for a detailed case study featuring Packet One.
In addition to his role as CTO of UQ Communications, Dr. Watanabe is also the executive director and general manager of Network Technology Division of KDDI. Dr. Watanabe has 30 years of experience in research and development on satellite communication systems and mobile communication systems including IMT-2000, IMT-Advanced and WiMAX and has familiarity in the international standardization of mobile systems in ITU-R TG8/1 and WP8F. Dr. Watanabe received the Piero Fanti International Prize in 1989, the R & D Awards of Radio Systems awarded by RCR in 1991, and the meritorious Awards on ITU activities from ITU-AJ in 2001, respectively. He is a chairman of Broadband Wireless Access Committee in ARIB and a vice president of the WiMAX Forum Japan Office. He is Fellow of IEIEC.
UQ Communications Inc. is the only telecommunications company in Japan that provides nationwide mobile services based on the WiMAX global technology standard. UQ Communications believes that the WiMAX network they are building will become a key component of the social infrastructure, enabling a ubiquitous information society. With its commercial launch date of July 2009, UQ Communications is already ahead of is deployment schedule, with plans to cover 55% of the Japanese population (most major cities) by the end of March 2010, with the goal of covering more than 90% of the Japanese population by FY2012. For a detailed case study on UQ Communications, please visit http://www.wimaxforum.org/sites/wimaxforum.org/files/uq.pdf.
Other members of the WiMAX Forum Board include: Airspan Networks, Alcatel-Lucent, Alvarion, Aperto Networks, Cisco Systems, Clearwire, Comcast Corporation, Fujitsu, Huawei, Information and Communications Research Laboratories at Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Intel Corporation, KDDI, KT, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung Electronics, Sprint Nextel, Tata Communications, Yota and ZTE Corporation.
The WiMAX Forum's membership base represents a thriving WiMAX ecosystem which supports the more than 518 WiMAX network deployments in 146 countries. A complete list of members is available online at http://www.wimaxforum.org/about/. For more information on the WiMAX ecosystem, please visit www.WiMAXTimes.com.
About the WiMAX Forum®
The WiMAX Forum® is an industry-led, not-for-profit organization formed to certify and promote the compatibility and interoperability of broadband wireless products based upon the harmonized IEEE 802.16e/ETSI HiperMAN standard. A WiMAX Forum goal is to accelerate the introduction of these systems into the marketplace. WiMAX Forum Certified products are interoperable and support broadband fixed, nomadic, portable and mobile services.
Along these lines, the WiMAX Forum works closely with service providers and regulators to ensure that WiMAX Forum Certified systems meet customer and government requirements. Through the WiMAX Forum Congress Events Series of global trade shows and events, the WiMAX Forum is committed to furthering education, training and collaboration to expand the reach of the WiMAX ecosystem. For more information, visit the trade show link at www.wimaxforum.org.
"WiMAX Forum," the WiMAX Forum logo and the WiMAX Forum Certified logo are registered trademarks of the WiMAX Forum. "WiMAX," "Mobile WiMAX," "Fixed WiMAX," "WiMAX Certified," and "WiMAX Forum Certified" are trademarks of the WiMAX Forum. Third-party trademarks contained in this document are the property of their respective owners.
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