PARIS (WiMAX Day). It’s been more than 35 years since the singer Joe Dassin convinced the world that everything one desires can be had on the Champs-Elysées. In the sunshine, in the rain, from midday to midnight, now Parisians might even have the opportunity to receive “anytime, anywhere” WiMAX broadband as well.

The American company Motorola announced today that it will work with the French telecoms group Bolloré to launch a test pilot of WiMAX in Paris. According to a company press release, the pilot already has begun quite near the fabled Avenue des Champs-Elysées, and at another location near the office of Bolloré in Puteaux, on the perimetre of Paris.

Bolloré Télécom, a subsidiary of the French conglomerate controlled by Vincent Bolloré, acquired 12 regional licenses for 3.5 GHz WiMAX spectrum at auction last year. The company has since been testing WiMAX technology, and some sources indicate that the testing is over for Bolloré and they look toward launching a commercial network.

For the moment, the current pilot “is designed to assist Bolloré Télécom in designing and assessing its WiMAX network as it looks to deliver new and innovative nomadic broadband services in France,” said Motorola. The testing of this “live” network will allow Motorola and Bolloré engineers to measure the radio performance of WiMAX, test applications and services, and “better prepare for its commercial deployment.”

Motorola is supplying Bolloré with WiMAX equipment compliant with the IEEE 802.16e standard, which includes access points, customer premises equipment (CPEs) and PC cards. Motorola is also providing its services to aid in the deployment, integration and support of the network.

Jean-Baptiste Chavanne, chief operating officer of Bolloré Télécom, said in a prepared statement, “Our WiMAX trial with Motorola will enable us to not only gain a better understanding of broadband provision as we look to launch our commercial services in a new integrated multimedia model, but it also demonstrates our commitment to the adoption of WiMAX technology. We are confident that our close collaboration with Motorola will enable us to accelerate the roll-out of WiMAX in France.”

According to a report today in the French newspaper Les Echos, initial testing of the network by Bolloré has produced glorious connectivity speeds of 7Mbps when downloading data, and 3 Mbps when sending data. Motorola has produced similar results for Sprint’s Xohm network in America. The report concluded that these speeds are “faster than those displayed by the 3G networks.”

Almost mobile
While the test being made by Bolloré uses Motorola’s mobile WiMAX equipment, the network is not exactly intended to be mobile, or at least not yet. The 3.5 GHz licenses in France do not allow operators to offer a “mobile” service, where a connection can be held from one base station to the next as in GSM, and thus a WiMAX network must be either “fixed” or “nomadic,” wherein a devise can move around whilst connected.

This distinction reportedly has kept several of the French WiMAX licensees from swift deployment of their networks. These operators have been patiently awaiting the day when the French regulator Arcep might agree to change the WiMAX licenses to allow for full mobility.

This has not been the case during the last year, however, across the border in Switzerland this week, WiMAX is on its way to enter the family of IMT-2000, a classification which includes mobile 3G technologies. Following such classification, many believe that European regulators will adopt such classification and permit mobility for WiMAX spectrum.

This would be good news for many Parisians, who know they can get everything they want on the Champs-Elysées.