A LOCAL technology firm has joined the ranks of a handful of companies worldwide capable of developing a new wireless technology called mobile WiMax.

This technology lets users surf the Internet or watch TV on the go more smoothly than now.

Home-grown wireless hardware maker Nex-G Systems last month inked a deal with technology giant IBM to develop base stations for mobile WiMax.

The technology will enable cellphone and laptop users to go online at speeds of up to 70Mbps, or about 20 times faster than what is offered on mobile Internet services now.

Such mobile WiMax services, available in South Korea now, are expected to roll out in countries like Singapore within the next five years.

Nex-G will design and manufacture the high-end base stations that telecom operators use to connect users wirelessly.

It also plans to license the technology to other manufacturers, when its first base stations are ready in a year's time.

Nex-G will use IBM's PowerPC chips in its base stations and have them marketed by distributor Nu Horizons Electronics Asia, in a deal announced yesterday at the sidelines of the Infocomm Media Business Exchange (imbX) trade show that began yesterday and runs till Friday.

Under the deal, 20 engineers from the local firm will tap on IBM's know-how in its chips to design a base station to sell to equipment manufacturers worldwide.

In the Asia-Pacific alone, the market for WiMax is expected to be worth US$8 billion (S$12.4 billion) in 2012, according to research firm In-Stat.

For now, only a handful of technology firms like Samsung have made and deployed sophisticated mobile WiMax base stations.

Nex-G chief executive officer Ronnie Persad told The Straits Times it hopes the new technology will boost sales for the company from $10 million to as much as $100 million by 2010.

He hopes to market the technology to developing countries especially, where many locations are not yet connected to the Internet.

The firm, which has been developing wireless base stations for three years, inked a US$29 million deal in December 2005 to build 4,000 'smart' lamp posts in Cameroon, complete with wireless antennas to link up rural areas.

Mr Manoj Menon, a partner of research firm Frost & Sullivan, said that now is a good time to enter the mobile WiMax market, especially to show off one's capabilities and win reference customers.

'The battleground for leadership in new technologies is usually fought over in the early days,' he added.

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