GENEVA (WiMAX Day). At a meeting last week of the International Telecommunications Union ITU-R Study Group 8, it was decided that one final meeting would be required to change the ITU-R Recommendation that is set to include IP-OFDMA in the definition for IMT-2000. WiMAX uses OFDMA technology, and by definition would be included in the IMT-2000 family of mobile technologies.

Following a meeting in Kyoto at the end of May, the new interface was set on its way for approval. The ITU then stated it had “delivered a number of key Recommendations and Reports that update and expand the family of IMT-2000 radio interfaces, establish the foundation for IMT-Advanced, and call for additional spectrum for IMT.”

At the meeting last week, two member states requested that a third meeting be held before the recommendations were finalised, according to a PolicyTracker report. Normally such decisions require three meetings, and both China and Germany requested that the three-meeting decision process be adhered to.

A special meeting has been scheduled for the end of August to address any final issues surrounding the Recommendations. The chairman of the ITU Study Group 8, Chris Van Diepenbeek, explained that “consensus was reached to finish the work as quickly as possible and additional effort is required by setting up another meeting of ITU-R Working Party 8F to advance the difficult analyses and technical studies.”

The goal for the ITU is to have the recommendations prepared in time for the World Radio Conference (WRC-07) in October. To achieve this now, any changes from the final documentation in August next would be sent for approval by the ITU Radiocommunication Sector — Radiocommunication Assembly 2007 (RA-07), which is convened in mid-October, before WRC-07.

There appear to be several issues that remain to be clarified, however the meeting in August should be enough time to complete the process. “While passage of the recommendations is not certain, it is extremely likely as decisions at the assembly are by majority vote rather than consensus,” noted PolicyTracker.

All of this is good news for WiMAX. With another two months to ensure that all outstanding issues are addressed, if the recommendations are approved in at RA-07, then “WiMAX will be part of the discussions for spectrum allocation for the next generation of IMT which are scheduled to take place at WRC-07.”