Sunday, September 27, 2009

Indonesia to launch first WiMAX wireless service in Q1 2010

Compiled from Xinhua and TeleGeography

Indonesia will first time deploy WiMax wireless service in the fist quarter of next year through PTTelekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom).

Telkom consumer director Ermady Dahlan was quoted by the newspaper as saying that the firm was in the middle of completing the administrative requirements needed in order to obtain the operational licenses.

Spokesman for the Indonesian Ministry of Communications and Information Gatot Dewa Broto said the ministry would issue WiMAX operational licenses by the end of October after a series of operational feasibility tests based on the completion of the administrative requirements.

In August this year Telkom was one of eight companies to receive WiMAX broadband licences from the government. Minister of Information and Communication, Mohammad Nuh, said the eight successful winners had met the minimum criteria for the awards, including the stipulation that each rolls out ‘sufficient infrastructure’ and ensures a minimum 30%-40% of local products are used in the deployment.

The full list of winners is PT Telkom, PT Indosat Mega Media, PT Internux, PT First Media, PT Jasnita Telekomindo, PT Berca Hardayaperkasa, PT Rahajasa Media Internet (also known as the Indonesian WiMAX Consortium), and a consortium comprising PT Comtronics Systems and PT Adiwarta Perdania.

WiMAX is an advanced telecommunications technology providing wireless transmission of data using portable and fully mobile Internet access.

It provides high-throughput broadband connections over long distances without having to build costly infrastructure and large numbers of transmission towers.

The technology, which provides an alternative to cable and digital subscriber lines (DSL), has coverage of some 50 km in radius from each base station, and has relatively low-investment costs compared to existing 3G technologies.