In a bid to expand its existing broadband and cellular network infrastructure, Aircel Business Solutions (ABS), the subsidiary of Aircel will soon be deploying Alvarion’s BreezeMAX 3300 WiMAX network platform across several cities in India.

The deployment will allow Aircel to offer broadband data and voice services to the burgeoning SME segment from across 50 cities in northern and eastern India.

Alvarion’s BreezeMAX 3300 is an extension of its own WiMAX platform operating in 3.3GHz, the frequency band specifically licensed for WiMAX services in India.

The platform is designed from the ground up according to the IEEE 802.16 standards and uses OFDM technology for advanced non-line-of-sight (NLOS) functionality. Its design is claimed to support broadband speeds and quality of service (QoS) good enough for carriers to offer triple play broadband services to thousands of subscribers in a single base station.

ABS conducted extensive technological and operational research before selecting BreezeMAX as its WiMAX platform of choice for their endeavor.

According to Jagdish Kini, group CEO, Aircel, "We have pioneered India’s wireless revolution by offering WiMAX along with a host of innovative enterprise services using BreezeMAX’s built-in support for service level agreements (SLAs). We look forward to continuing to work with Alvarion as we expand our WiMAX offerings across India."

Aircel currently has deployments in eight cities and is using BreezeMAX to overlay and expand its cellular network infrastructure.

"Aircel is one of several WiMAX customers we have in APAC, a region identified long ago as having great potential for WiMAX due to its insatiable demand for broadband and general lack of infrastructure," said Tzvika Friedman, president and CEO of Alvarion.

"Leveraging our widely deployed BreezeMAX system and deep technical capabilities, we were able to quickly and cost-effectively offer a WiMAX product in the specific spectrum available in India. We are very excited to help close the digital divide in such a large and important emerging market."