The WiMAX Forum ™ was established in mid 2001 as an industry association. The Forum describes its mandate as one to coordinate testing and ensure the certification of interoperability of WiMAX equipment to the standards of the IEEE 802.16, ETSI HiperMAN and WiBro/Mobile WiMAX standards.

The WiMAX Forum shoulders the responsibility of promoting the adoption of broadband wireless gear beyond the adoption of a technical standard by working to remove barriers to broadband wireless adoption. To this end, the WiMAX Forum maintains working groups formed to address specific elements including regulatory, certification, technical, marketing, service provider, networks and applications.