Doctor: Take some WiMAX and call me in the morning

NEC selected to provide mobile WiMAX for Thailand's Crown Prince Hospital Foundation.

NEC Corporation announced its selection by Thailand's Crown Prince Hospital Foundation to provide WiMAX systems for medical facilities located in the country's northern Chiang Khong region. Networks will be built between medical centers and outlying clinics to extend specialized services to the local level. The Foundation operates more than twenty domestic hospitals throughout Thailand.

The Chiang Khong hospital WiMAX services will provide wireless broadband communications to locations within a five kilometer radius, which currently includes three medical clinics, and expands communications systems beyond fixed analog telephone lines. New applications include video and TV phone services to assist with remote medical care. Patients that were limited to visiting major hospitals for certain treatments will now be able to receive quality care from the convenience of a local clinic. Medical personnel will also gain efficiencies from high-speed transmission for medical imaging.

Thailand's broadband communications infrastructure is currently undergoing expansion, but the vast majority of growth is concentrated in the Bangkok metropolitan area. Thai regulator National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) issued 12 trial licenses for WiMAX services in January 2008. Triple T Broadband (TT&T) is trialing Cisco equipment at 21 universities; True Corporation picked Alcatel-Lucent in the Phatumthanee, outside of Bangkok; Advanced Info Service (AIS) is testing Motorola in Bangkok and Lamlukka. NTC is also considering additional spectrum auctions for the 2.5 GHz and 3.5 GHz bands along with incremental allocations for 3G services.

NEC has remained active in mobile WiMAX development through its participation in M-Taiwan trials with carrier customer Tatung Infocomm.

By Jeff Orr, ORR Technology, LLC

Friday, August 22, 2008 in Applications  | Permalink |  Comments (0)