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The startup effort, formally known as a Study Group, was approved by 802.16 on November 11 at the close of its Session #4 in Koloa, Hawaii, USA. The Study Group was formally created later that evening by the Executive Committee of the IEEE 802 LAN/MAN Standards Committee. The Group's formal charter is "to investigate establishing air interface specifications for fixed point to multi-point Broadband Wireless Access systems operating in frequency bands below 10 GHz." The intent is to look at community interest, appropriate frequency bands, and the relationship to existing standards efforts and then, if appropriate, to define the project scope and deadline in a Project Authorization Request (PAR) to be finalized during the upcoming 802.16 Session #5 (January 10-14 in Richardson, TX, USA).
Brian Kiernan, Senior Vice President of InterDigital Communications Corp., was named to Chair the Study Group by 802.16 Chair Roger Marks; he was then approved by the 802.16 membership. Mr. Kiernan has extensive experience in communications standardization. After the Study Group creation, 26 meeting attendees indicated an interest in participating. Participation is open to all. Further information will be forthcoming on the 802.16 web site.