Oki and Huawei Technologies will jointly collaborate and develop products for the mobile WiMAX market in Japan next year, a move both companies hope will coincide with the commercial rollout of WiMAX in the country.
'WiMAX field trials are currently going on. We expect WiMAX to be ready by next year, or latest 2008,' said Yutaka Maeda, executive VP of Oki Electric.
The first joint products will be launched in 2Q 2007, initially targeting telecom carriers, followed by local government municipalities in Japan.
Oki and Huawei are expected to roll out the products regionally into countries like Korea and China if the collaboration proves successful, although Maeda did not specify a timeframe.
Maeda said Oki last year built a business unit to capitalize on the growth of the NGN market in Japan, and is confident sales can reach $865 million by 2008.
In the collaboration, Oki will offer WiMAX base stations and base station control equipment for infrastructure, built-in terminals and PCMCIA card terminals. It will also act as a VAR for Huawei and customize Huawei's mobile WiMAX for carriers in Japan. Oki will develop its own WiMAX Wi-Fi converter, communication module for embedded systems, and indoor base stations such as pico cells.
Huawei on the other hand, will develop applications and customize products based on Oki's marketing feedback. It also aims to integrate Oki's WiMAX terminals and indoor base stations into Huawei's WiMAX products.
Oki first started business in China in the 1980s and has been working with Huawei in areas such as optical components.