Annual Awards Program Recognizes WiMAX Industry Leaders
1 Novermber 2007
xchange is pleased to announce the Best of WiMAX World USA 2007 Awards, which recognizes leaders in the development and deployment of WiMAX technologies. xchange was invited again by Trendsmedia, producer of the WiMAX World Conference & Expo Global Series, to sponsor the awards program. Nominations were open to exhibitors, sponsors and speakers of the WiMAX World USA Conference, held Sept. 25-27, in Chicago, with the exception of the new WiMAX World Digital Cities Deployment category, which was open to exhibitors, sponsors and presenters of both WiMAX World USA and Digital Cities Conferences.
Winners and Industry Choice nominees were selected by a judging panel of experts from the WiMAX community. The awards, in their second year, received more than 80 nominations — double that of the inaugural contest. Eliot Weinman, conference co-chair and president of Trendsmedia; Kelly Teal, business and regulatory editor of xchange; and Tara Seals, associate editor of xchange, presented the awards.
“xchange would like to thank all the WiMAX World exhibitors for support of this awards program,” said Mike Saxby, publisher of xchange. “We are pleased to be able to provide a forum to showcase the incredible innovation occurring in the WiMAX arena. Congratulations to all of the winners that by virtue of a competitive field have proved to be the industry’s leaders.”
The winners were selected by an independent judging panel, including Craig Mathias, principal, Farpoint Group; Will Strauss, principal analyst, Forward Concepts; Adlane Fellah, CEO and founder, Maravedis Inc.; Caroline Gabriel, lead research analyst, Rethink Research; Philip Marshall, vice president of enabling technologies, Yankee Group; James Farstadt, founder and president, rClient LLC; Michael Khalilian, chairman and president, IMS Forum; and representatives from xchange and Trendsmedia.
Eliot Weinman, conference co-chair and president, Trendsmedia (far left) flanks the winners: (back row) Dan Evans, vice president of investor relations and corporate communications, Clearwire Corp.; Motorola Inc.’s Ken Riordan, director of software-defined radio architecture, and Adolfo Masini, vice president of product management, wireless broadband; Georges Karam, president and CEO, Sequans Communications; Paul Senior, CTO, Airspan Networks Inc.; (front row) Barry West, CTO, Sprint, and president of Xohm; Alok Sharma, CEO, Telsima Corp.; and Dr. JK Liang, executive vice president, wireless business, ZyXEL Communications Corp.
DEVICE/PERIPHERAL/APPLICATION SOFTWARE
Paul Senior, CTO of Airspan, received his company’s award in the Device/Peripheral/ Application Software category. This category includes any WiMAX-based device, fixed or mobile (not a base station or point-to-point/point-to-multipoint link) or systems software for a WiMAX product or installation. Nominations were judged based on concept, application, features and benefits.
Winner: Airspan Networks Inc.
MiMAX USB
This product is genuinely ground-breaking as it is one of the first in what will become a very important category — USB WiMAX devices with full MIMO support. This MIMO support should overcome some of the problems inherent in using 802.16e at relatively high frequencies in highly mobile formats, or indoors, making WiMAX more usable and more profitable.