Many anlaysts (including this one) have long had the opinion that developing
countries would represent the largest market for WiMAX. The lack of
wire-line infrastructure, business’ need for broadband Internet service, and the
increased availability of low cost PCs have created a huge pent up demand for
broadband wireless access (BWA) in developing countries. At this time, the
developing countries urgently need fixed broadband wireless access to grow and
this need is being met by operators deploying IEEE 802.16-2005 (AKA "16e" or
"mobile WiMAX"). We continue to see this theme playing out each week with
new deployment announcements. Recently, new WiMAX deployments have been
announced in Costa Rica while steady inroads have been made throughout Africa.
Last week, Costa Rica’s Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) -Costa
Rica’s leading incumbent operator for telecommunications and electricity-
awarded a $6 million contract to Alvarion Ltd (Tel Aviv, Israel) to
implement a complete broadband wireless project using "mobile WiMAX" in the 2.5
GHz frequency band.
Under the agreement, Alvarion will use its 4Motion solution with a WiMAX Forum
Certified (TM) BreezeMAX 2500 platform for advanced broadband services.
4Motion offers value-added "Personal Broadband" services for both business and
residential BWA customers. The network will initially be deployed in San
Jose (capital city) and the rural areas of Limon. Alvarion will provide
ICE with thousands of CPEs (customer premises equipment), radio planning, system
integration and configuration support, maintenance services at customer
premises, training courses, and other assistance. Israel based Telerad is
Alvarion’s local partner for this project.
This past November, Alvarion decided to create WiMax Zone Rapid Deployment Kits
to enable carriers to deploy broadband services in small and medium-sized
emerging market areas, consistent with
Intel’s World Ahead Program
initiative.
A recent article asserts that
WiMAX has gained
significant market traction in Africa. Alvarion estimates that there
are over 100 installed WiMAX systems in Africa with more than 45 of these
operating in unlicensed spectrum and over 55 in 2.X or 3.X GHz spectrum.
Newer systems are said to be licensed in the 2.X spectrum. While Alvarion
has dominated the African WiMAX equipment market, plenty of other WiMAX vendors
have sold into that market. The list includes: Telsima, ZTE, Huawei, Soma
Networks, Smart Link Communication, Galaxia Telecom, Redline Communications and
Airspan Networks.
Namibian incumbent Telecom Namibia was initially using WiMAX for fixed wireless
voice to a farming area with a dispersed population of between 3-5,000 people.
But now it is trying to persuade its customers to also use WiMAX for Internet
access. Another major African mobile operator (unspecified) has a
household CPE product that will support fixed wireless VoIP over WiMAX and is
offering that wherever VoIP is legal. Comparing WiMAX to 3G data
technologies, David Levy, General Manager-Africa and the Middle East at Alvarion
states: "You need to use something like WiMAX because it’s easier to add
services on top. HSDPA is not a long-term usage, mobile-based IP
technology."
Expect to see more WiMAX deployments in emerging markets that combine fixed
broadband Internet access with voice services (VoIP over WiMAX).
Alan Weissberger
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