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Samsung Electronics and Yota are now testing Mobile WiMAX 2.0 (IEEE 802.16m), which Yota calls the most probable candidate for the new commercial standard among the IMT-Advanced (advanced IMT-2000) generation. Its data transfer speed is four times faster than current Mobile WiMAX (802.16e) networks thanks to multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology, which raises the efficiency of radio band utilization. Yota also expects Mobile WiMAX 2.0 to offer higher performance than the competing 3GPP Long-Term Evolution (LTE) standard.

Mobile WiMAX 2.0 provides full backward compatibility with Mobile WiMAX 1.0. As a result, Yota says, existing Mobile WiMAX operators can convert to 802.16m with little expense by updating several circuit plate units and their basestation software. Mobile WiMAX 1.0 handsets also are fully compatible with the basestations that will be developed in the future, Yota says.

Samsung will demonstrate its 802.16m technology this week during ITU Telecom World 2009 in Geneva. This solution comprises its U-RAS Flexible basestations with upgraded modules, the existing Mobile WiMAX handset, and the prototype of the new handset developed for Mobile WiMAX 2.0. Samsung’s goal is to demonstrate the full backward compatibility between the 1.0 and 2.0 versions of the standard. Yota plans to install the first Mobile WiMAX 2.0 solution from Samsung on its network by the end of 2010.

“Many of our clients, for example, watch movies using the 4G Internet. However, currently, to watch the HD movie you have to download it first. With WiMAX 802.16m, one will be able to watch the the HD-quality movie on the big screen online. And this is just one of the applications of the new technology,” says Dennis Sverdlov, Yota CEO. “Even more, the capacity of new basestations is many times more than that of the current ones. This will allow us to provide services to more clients using the same number of basestations.”