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Queensland, Australia-based Internet and phone service provider Buzz Broadband has reportedly upgraded its network to deliver wireless VoIP using WiMAX equipment and solutions provided by Airspan Networks (News - Alert).

Buzz Broadband, a locally based carrier and ISP operating in the cities of Bundaberg, Maryborough, Hervey Bay and Childers, is an established Airspan customer. The company is already delivering a wireless service using Airspan’s ASWipLL system (Airspan’s low-cost Fixed Wireless Access system designed to deliver high-speed data, VoIP and multimedia services) with 22 base stations and backhaul links. It is now expanding that network using Airspan’s VoiceMAX broadband access solution, which will enable it to deliver mobile VoIP to its approximately 150,000 customers. Airspan claims this will be the first commercial WiMAX service which meets the QoS requirements of the 802.16 WiMAX Forum standard launched in Australia.

Airspan’s VoiceMAX solution, part of its AS.MAX portfolio of solutions (also including AS.NET and AS.TONE) enables an operator to control what type of traffic is allowed on a particular network or segment of a network. The solution’s call admission control features prevent oversubscription of VoIP traffic and protects existing voice traffic from degrading in quality as additional traffic comes onto the network. By supporting admission control over the AS.MAX and AS.WipLL systems, an operator can manage VoIP calls within each radio sector. The integrated solution takes into account the wireless resource availability, subscriber service level agreement and call type (Emergency call, High Priority call, and Standard call). Working in concert with the iTONE softswitch and VoiceMAX Server, the solution gives operators full control to allow, reject, change call parameters (Vocoders) or disconnect VoIP calls. Best of all the solution provides multi-vendor interoperability and works with third party SIP based Softswitches and standard SIP clients, without the need for special software.

The AS.MAX solution suite consists of four different Base Station solutions and a range of indoor and outdoor CPEs. Airspan claims it delivers “all the benefits of multi-vendor interoperability, ever decreasing CPE costs, indoor, self install CPE economics, and a path that leads to the support of handheld device portability and roaming, heralding a new era of inexpensive, ubiquitous broadband wireless access everywhere.”

Buzz Broadband, which competes against Telstra in the markets it serves, will use Airspan’s AS.MAX solution to deliver WiMAX service across a 30,000 square kilometer region in Queensland, where Buzz Broadband holds 3.4GHz licenses. The upgraded network will deliver high-speed, “ADSL-like” broadband and VoIP connectivity at distances exceeding 30 kilometers from the base station sites.

Buzz Broadband’s initial deployment will use the MicroMAX Base Station, Airspan’s low-cost, high-performance WiMAX Forum Certified base station, which will be linked to Airspan’s WiMAX Forum Certified ProST and EasyST subscriber units. Airspan claims the EasyST is the world’s first “self installable” WiMAX Forum Certified modem. The EasyST and ProST both incorporate Intel’s (News - Alert) ProWireless 5116 chip.

Garth Freeman, Buzz Broadband’s CEO, said in a press release that the network upgrade and use of AirSpan’s solutions “heralds in a new era for Broadband, VoIP and Data services in regional and Rural Australia.”

Boca Raton, Fla.-based Airspan is a founding member of the WiMAX Forum and is a member of the Wi-Fi Alliance. The company’s wireless products are used by more than 400 operators in 100 countries working in both licensed and unlicensed frequency bands between 700 MHz and 6 GHz (including both PCS and 3.5GHz international bands). Airspan offers solutions meeting the 802.11 a/b/g Wi-Fi standards as well as WiMAX Forum Certified equipment which is upgradeable to Mobile WiMAX (the 802.16e-2005 standard).

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Patrick Barnard is Associate Editor for TMCnet and a columnist covering the telecom industry. To see more of his articles, please visit Patrick Barnard’s columnist page.