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Who are we? And huattaheck are we doing?

 Huawei has revealed that it "obtained three Wave 2 certifications from the WiMAX Forum for its newest WiMAX base station, the WiMAX DBS3900, and two of its terminal products, the BM325 and BM625, which are all based on the WiMAX 802.16e standard."

This phrase probably says it all for hard-core WiMAX experts, or people buying basestations, or buying terminal products; but NewsWireless thought it might be interesting for our readers to be told what a Wave 2 certification actually meant. So we rang Huawei.

"That's good feedback," said the representative approvingly. Thanks, we said, but what does it mean? "It means: 

Wave2 Certification is the latest version of WiMAX Standard issued by the WiMAX Forum to help stimulate the standardization and efficiency of WiMAX multiple products among industry chain manufacturers. The products that have passed Wave2 certification will have the ability to interoperate with other vendors’ WiMAX access points and devices that have passed the same certification process,"

...said the representative patiently. Well, yes... but in the "real world"?

"I'll try to find out."

So NewsWireless contacted a tame consultant who works in this field.

"If you promise not to quote me by name," said this guru, "then I can explain."

We promised.

"It means: 'thats the certification that says this is shit but it works in the US,' ok?" he confided.

Well, it's WiMAX, yes, so it might be pretty ordinary, but what is Wave 2?

"Wave 2 is the next evolutionary step for WiMAX, that takes it upto that of WCDMA in terms of functionality," our expert revealed. "But it is still a long way back from HSPA+ and LTE," he added.

So now you know... full press release is here