WiMAX to reach 25% of Malaysia's Population by Year-end

Delays in WiMAX Forum certification testing slow roll-out by operators, says government regulator.

Malaysia's Bernama news service reports that the country's government remains optimistic about significant WiMAX access by the end of this year despite industry delays in achieving certification products and a reluctance by the licensed operators to collaborate with each other. The update this week comes from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) who sees the near-term opportunity continuing to outpace the immediate bumps in the road.

MCMC chairman Datuk Dr Halim Shafie explained the snag has been felt at a global level and is not specific to his country's capability or effort to deploy mobile WiMAX (IEEE802.16e-2005) technologies. The chairman is referring to the recent WiMAX Forum announcement that products using the 2.5 GHz spectrum have not yet achieved certification by three or more vendors. The certification testing started last December when equipment companies were given the go-ahead to submit radios. At a WiMAX Forum trade show earlier this month in Asia, the industry trade association announced that four vendors had achieved WiMAX Forum Certified products, but they were specific to the 2.3 GHz WiBro profile available only in South Korea.

The 2.5 GHz spectrum profile is considered to be the "sweet spot" for many of the world's initial deployments for mobile WiMAX, including Japan, Taiwan, and the United States. Apparently, Malaysian operators have elected to start deployments once certified equipment becomes available. The WiMAX Forum estimated a couple more months before they could appear and an undetermined duration thereafter before products reach mass production.

The MCMC is considering the possibility of extending the deadline for WiMAX service availability, but stated that it needs to study the situation. The MCMC had issued a firm statement earlier in the year that licensed operators needed to make every effort possible to deploy or face losing their license and investment.

Four network operators have WiMAX licenses in Malaysia. Asiaspace Dotcom, Green Packet, REDtone International, and YTL e-Solutions were each awarded licenses last year. The MCMC has been encouraging the four to collaborate and work together to meet deadlines. "We are trying to encourage them to share but they are not too keen. They want to do it on their own," said Halim.

Halim said that Green Packet plans to roll out its service in June using non-certified or proprietary radio kit and plans to adopt the certified WiMAX infrastructure once available. "Green Packet wants to be early in the market. They will use whatever technology they have first and then when WiMAX comes in, they will upgrade to it," he said.


By Jeff Orr

ORR Technology, LLC

Wednesday, April 23, 2008 in Deployments  | Permalink |  Comments (0)