With the incoming Obama administration, much focus in the US has been around the proposed $825 billion economic stimulus plan - including $6 billion for improving US broadband infrastructure. The most likely benefactors of these programs would be rural areas, where WiMAX would be a leading contender for delivering broadband services quickly and cheaply to underserved areas.
On the equipment side, Alcatel-Lucent started a Development Center in Taiwan. ZTE announced that WiMAX ForumTM certification was achieved for its 3.5Ghz WiMAX 802.16e base stations, an industry first in this band. Accton Wireless Broadband (AWB) also announced the company's full range of products had achieved M-Taiwan Wave 2 certification.