An overview of the standardisation in the area of the broadband fixed wireless access

The broadband fixed wireless access systems will be subject to an ina easing development during the next years; these systems will allow to offer the subscriber a full set of services, from the conventional narrow band applications up to the emergent broadband services like Internet access, or leased lines. This rapid growth has carried several initiatives in the telecommunications standardisation bodies, like ETSI in Europe, IEEE in North America, or ITU at international level. These initiatives resulted in the creation of ad hoc groups, for instance the BRAN/Hiperaccess project of ETSI, the IEEE 802.16, or the JRG 8A-9B in ITU standards resulting from this activity are expected in 2000/2001. br parallel to this standardisation activity it appeared necessary to designate, or at least to recommend, dedicated frequency bands for fixed wireless access (FWA) or multimedia wireless systems (MWS) applications. In order to satisfy this need the regulation authorities, especially the CEPT in Europe are preparing decisions and recommendations which are expected to favour a certain level of harmonisation in the use of the spectrum by FWA or MWS systems.