ITU to make WiMAX a 3G standard

According to the WiMAX Forum's white paper "WiMAX and IMT-2000" , there is a good chance that the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) will allow mobile WiMAX to be included in its range of 3G technologies, collectively known as IMT-2000.
Such a move would bring considerable benefits by allowing WiMAX to operate in globally allocated frequency bands, allow it to be used to complement other 3G technologies, enable global roaming and reduce equipment costs.

The White Paper says: "including IP-OFDMA (mobile WiMAX) within the IMT-2000 family of radio transmission technologies will put mobile WiMAX on a comparable worldwide footing with EV-DO, HSPA, and other recent and planned enhancements to 3G technology. This will offer operators an additional migration path to consider as they strive to add network capabilities to support a larger suite of value-added broadband services."

According to WiMAX Day, "The exact technology that is being considered for inclusion in IMT is 'IP-OFDMA'. This is an acronym for Internet Protocol - Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access used by the IEEE 802.16e mobility standard, which is otherwise commonly referred to as WiMAX."

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