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Maravedis Interview with Danske Telecom
Peter Jerry Sorensen, CEO, Danske Telecom, Discusses the WiMAX Licensing Landscape, WiMOSS Optimization and Competition.
By Basharat Hashai, Market Analyst - Asia
Contact the author at Basharat@maravedis-bwa.com
Maravedis: To begin, could you please shed some light on the WiMAX license history in Denmark
PJS: There were originally three 3.5GHz licenses offered to the Danish market in a “beauty contest”. We won one of them; Tele 2 and Telenor won the other two. After receiving the license, Tele 2 decided to hand back their license to the regulator. When they decided to do that, we asked the regulator whether we could acquire this license. We were allowed to have this license, but under this license we were not allowed to cover the Copenhagen area. To provide WiMAX services in Copenhagen area, another auction was held. We bid for the license and won the auction.
Maravedis: What is the current status of BWA/WiMAX market in Denmark?
PJS: We have not seen a lot of WiMAX activity in Denmark so far. To date, Telenor has not launched any WiMAX services. In the latest yearly statistics released by the regulator, Danske Telecom sits on 94% of the WiMAX market in Denmark. There are other companies such as Butler Networks that provide fixed wireless broadband services in the higher frequency bands.
Maravedis: What is your current activity in the mobile WiMAX space?
PJS: Currently we are providing the fixed WiMAX services only. But we are going to launch the mobile WiMAX services soon. Right now, we are evaluating the vendors and we are setting up tests in Copenhagen.
Maravedis: So, is your future strategy going to be Fixed or Mobile WiMAX?
PJS: I do not view the fixed WiMAX as a very interesting business case. It is only interesting if you deploy very high speed services greater than 10 Mbps. The only saviour for the fixed WiMAX is the high speed. This is where the fixed WiMAX market has a life and has some potential business opportunity in a country like Denmark.
Maravedis: What are the key challenges that WiMAX operators like you face today?
PJS: The average data traffic per user is increasing every single day. The behavior of the users, vis-à-vis the allocation of the spectrum and the capacity of the base stations, is a key challenge that we have seen in our networks. It is a challenge that has driven us to develop our own software tool, called WiMOSS.
Maravedis: What role does a WiMOSS tool play in your network?
PJS: Our WiMOSS tool minimizes the interference and optimizes the modulations of a given sector. It does the dynamic quality control of users in a given sector so that the users share the limited capacity in the most optimum way. WiMOSS enables us to probably have 3 to 5 times more customers in a given sector.
Maravedis: How many cities have you covered so far with WiMAX services in Denmark?
PJS: We have covered seven largest cities in Denmark so far. The cities include Copenhagen, Århus, Odense, Aalborg, Randers and some others.
Maravedis: So, what is your focus going forward?
PJS: We will concentrate on these seven largest cities. The focus is especially on building out capacity in the areas where a huge uptake of new customers is expected.
Maravedis: What is your biggest competition at present?
PJS: Our competitors are mainly the DSL service providers. The major competitors include TDC (incumbent), TeliaSonera, Telenor, and some smaller players that buy from TDC and then sell services on top.
Maravedis: Any partnerships yet?
PJS: We have some certified partners that deliver VoIP over WiMAX. There are VoIP companies like Onfone that buy our services and then sell bundled services like surf and talk.
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The complete version of the interview is available to wimaxcounts subscribers only. The details include spectrum info, WiMAX subscribers number, subscriber split (residential & enterprise), revenue split, ARPU, WiMAX equipment deployed-total base stations deployed along with vendor breakdown, total CPEs deployed along with vendor breakdown, competitive advantage, and loads of information.
For more information you can contact the author. Basharat@maravedis-bwa.com
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No reproduction without consent.
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