At an event held in Mumbai yesterday, Sify along with Proxim Wireless launched its new WiMAX solution with mobility features.

In order to demonstrate the range and mobility features of the solution, the launch was held about 5 km away from land on a catamaran cruising along the sea with a live demonstration of a 3.3 Ghz based product of 802.16d WiMAX standard.

Regarded as the first-of-its-kind solution, Sify has chosen and deployed Proxim Wireless's Tsunami MP.11 WiMAX product line as the core communications platform for last mile access using the 5.8 GHz frequency band.

The Tsunami MP.11 product family of rugged base stations, indoor and outdoor subscriber units, and accessories have been developed as a platform to enable WiMAX capabilities for license-free frequency bands.

As of now, the company claims to have deployed over 700 Tsunami MP.11 base stations and 3,500 subscriber units to provide Internet access, voice, and video broadband services to all sections including enterprise, residential, and cyber cafe subscribers in over 200 cities. There are further plans on expanding the service to more cities, but haven't revealed any name in specific.

Lionel Chmilewsky, Senior Vice President- International, Proxim Wireless, said, "Sify's deployment is certainly a strong endorsement of our WiMAX technology and product line. As India's premier provider of broadband access services, Sify is setting the standard for delivering 'triple play' of voice, data, and video to subscribers wherever they are located throughout the country. We are pleased and honored to be their partner in this effort."

Commenting on Sify's partnership with Proxim, Bhaskar S, Chief Technology Officer, Sify, said, "After testing and evaluating products from a number of manufacturers over a period of eight months, we chose Proxim's product line because the company met all our criteria, and its point-to-multipoint products offer the best packet processing capacity for last mile access."

The service is available in both, point-to-point and point-to-multipoint Proxim products and Sify claims to have tested a range of about 27 km on it's solution.

When asked about the cost, Bhaskar refused to disclose the amount but hinted that it will be a little expensive (30 percent more) as compared to other solutions. However, the cost will eventually come down, he said.