SYDNEY (WiMAX Day). American companies have never been very good at playing with their neighbors or competitors – the complex and difficult roaming in the US cellular networks being one example.

As Sprint, Clearwire et al, begin planning to roll-out national WiMAX networks, they might take a few hints from Unwired Australia, the leading antipodean WiMAX operator, and Austar a regional pay TV operator. The two companies formed the AUSalliance with communications firm Soul in May, and are seeking a cut of the Australian federal government’s AUD $1.1 billion Connect Australia funding program to build a wireless national broadband network. This program intends to give internet service providers incentives to supply higher bandwidth services in regional, rural and remote areas.

Unwired Group Limited and Austar also announced a spectrumswap deal that is designed to deliver interoperable wireless broadband services in both metropolitan and regional Australia, as their networks are rolled out. Together, their spectrum licenses cover 95 per cent of the population, enabling them to rollout low-cost high speed wireless broadband networks.

Unwired CEO Mr David Spence commented that, “The beauty of building WiMAX-compliant networks is interoperability. As the networks are rolled out, Unwired would be able to sell a national service to all regions where Austar builds its network, in addition to its own city network and services, enabling Unwired wireless broadband customers to roam” throughout Australia.

Unwired is the largest WiMAX operator in Australia, and among the largest in the world, and their understanding of the business model for WiMAX is visible in their stride toward interoperability and roaming. The AUSalliance should be a blueprint for all countries that will help WiMAX to revolutionise broadband and data access in much the same way as the GSM standard transformed voice and its associated technologies.