The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Radiocommunication Assembly approved developments for its 3G standards on Oct. 24, paving the way for deployment of a range of voice, data and multimedia services to stationary and mobile devices.
Meeting ahead of the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-07), which commenced Oct. 22 in Geneva, the ITU-R Assembly made the decision to include WiMAX-derived technology in the framework of IMT-2000 (International Mobile Telecommunications) standards. The agreement opens the door to mobile Internet, catering to demand in both urban and rural markets.
The assembly formally recognized technology derived from IEEE 802.16 by incorporating it as the sixth terrestrial IMT- 2000 radio interface. This is the first addition to IMT-2000 since the original five were adopted years ago as part of the 3G radio standards being used globally and significantly pushes the technological envelope of IMT-2000 capabilities.
The ITU-R Assembly meets every three to four years to deliberate the future direction of radiocommunications. This year, more than 600 participants attended.