By Eric Griffith

September 7, 2004

The WiMax Forum — the industry group that will promote interoperability between future IEEE 802.16-based products that do long-range wireless connections — has gained some big names recently.

Last week, outlets like Unstrung.com and DigiTimes reported that Cisco Systems has joined the forum, or at least applied to do so.

Today, Nortel Networks also announced it will be a principal member of the group. Nortel said in its announcement that the company’s expertise in Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), the radio technology used in some 802.11 flavors as well as 802.16, and in Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) smart antennas and channels, would “enhance WiMax’s potential for widespread adoption.”

Other big name members of the forum include Nokia (which dropped out at one point, then re-joined again in June of this year), Alcatel, Motorola, and many more — there are about 150 member companies.

WiMax is short for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access.