WiMax.com interviews Dov Bar-gera, co-Founder and Chairman of WiMAX Telecom, to discuss WiMAX Telecom's plans for deploying fixed and mobile WiMAX broadband services in Central and Eastern Europe.

It is commonly known that WiMAX Telecom holds 3.5 GHz licenses for all of Austria. However are there other countries that your firm holds licensed spectrum in and if so, what spectrum and where?

We just won a license in Slovakia  to operate broadband wireless access (BWA) at 3.5 GHz. There were 14 applications - among them Orange and T-Mobile-  for four licenses.

If  your firm does not yet hold licenses in other countries, what are some markets that seem very attractive to you?

In General we perceive Central and Eastern Europe as our territory. There is a huge lack of basic broadband access, the level of education is very high and the economies are fast and growing strongly. 

How quickly do you plan to deploy and have you selected a technology vendor as of yet? Who is your vendor?

In this stage we decided to acquire 802.16d equipment from Alcatel, which is using Alvarion as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM). We will be commercially on-air in parts of Austria by September 05 and a few weeks later in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia.

It has been stated that WiMAX Telecom intends to offer service in rural areas first with metropolitan service coming later---does this mean that your plans are to use 802.16-2004 (Fixed WiMAX) technology first?

Absolutely right. There is a big unserved market there and somebody should bring broadband to these consumers. That's our immediate target.

Would your company possibly deploy Fixed broadband wireless access in rural markets and Mobile WiMAX in cities? Since the two technology standards appear to be incompatible, would that preclude such plans?

There is still some time for the mobility to come. We are not going to sit still for the next generation of equipment. We will start in rural areas, learn and get the necessary experience to move into sub-urban areas and eventually end as a service provider in the major cities. The big markets are in the urban areas.

Does your business model hinge on a largely residential customer base, a business-to-business model or some kind of mix? In which direction is it likely to lean and do you anticipate it changing over time?

The real business is with residential customers. Business customers are more demanding and this market segments attracts much more competition. A mix of the two is healthy. We also expect meaningful growth in demand from the residential market, as more consumers are canceling their fixed telephone line to stay with mobile only. We will then be positioned as their provider for broadband access.

How quickly do you anticipate growing your customer base? What are your first year subscriber projections hinting at?

We are modest. In 2005 we expect les than 3,000 subscribers in Austria and a couple hundred in Slovakia.

What price and speed ranges have your market research revealed as being most desired in Austria and other likely early markets?

We will address that question at our official launch.

What is the geography of Austria like? We surmise it sports heavy tree cover and significant mountain ranges to skirt around, does this pose special challenges and how can WiMAX solve them if so?

The eastern part of the country, where some 40% of the population is concentrated, is relatively flat. This is also economically the most important region. The alpine regions are not our first priority as one may imagine.

Is the relatively high cost of main bandwidth in Europe a big factor in your business plan?

Prices are falling like everywhere. In cases where the fiber network is either too expensive or not available, we will build our own backhaul.

 
How do you anticipate bundling your products to obviate competition? What will be your first product?

We intend to follow the KISS principle (keep it simple and sweet). We intend to offer just broadband access with VOIP telephony during the second stage of deployment. We will offer flat fees tied to speed and download volume.


Mr. Dov Bar-Gera, co-founder and Chairman. Mr. Bar-Gera has worked in the  telecommunications field  for more than 20 years. He was founder of the first Austrian paging company 'Airpage Telecommunications', the telephone company 'RSL Com Austria AG' and 'surfEU Ltd'. Mr. Bar-Gera is a graduate in land surveying engineering and holds an MBA from Insead.