3G market expected to expand soon with more phone models

Celcom expects that its subsbriber base will increase very soon from current 20K to 150K by end of next year with the coming of more 3G phone models with much more affordable price.

A survey conducted by MCMC in 2004 showed that 75% of subscribers spent less than RM100 per month. It is yet to see what kind of applications would really attract people to use the costly 3G services.

VDSL Network Sdn Bhd uses VDSL-FSO

VDSL Network Sdn Bhd (VDSL) has teamed up with a US-based technology partner Cyjaya to provide very high-speed broadband access in the country and is working on a rollout plan for the service in the Klang Valley next year.

VDSL would build its own network infrastructure using VDSL-FSO (very high bit rate digital subscriber line - free space optics) technology.

The advantage of this technology is that the time needed to set up the network is much faster as it operates based on, among other things, ABLFSO (air blown lambda fibre space optic) technology for its backbone infrastructure and even in some cases, wireless broadband for last mile connectivity to the consumer.

2nd round of 3G license bidding

After much anticipation, we saw only 3 companies applying for 3G licences in this second round of bidding. According to MCMC, the three companies are:
i) DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd,
ii) TT Dotcom Sdn Bhd, and
iii) MiTV Corporation Sdn Bhd

Mesh Network Market continues to grow

Recent study by ABI Research shows that Mesh Network Market May See Tenfold Growth In Five Years.

However, it is worth taking note that according to this new study from ABI Research, the increase will mostly come from deployments by alternative service providers and municipalities, rather than incumbent service providers. There will also be some "campus" style deployments in academic, corporate and resort environments, as well as temporary rollouts at conferences or fairs.

A major problem that would have to be worry by incumbent service providers is the Quality of Service (QoS). Can they guarantee the QoS in the presence of large number of existing WLAN users in the same vicinity?

Green Packet Bhd

Green Packet Bhd, a homegrown mobile software technology provider, has won a contract to supply its 3G Mobile Data Solution to Far EasTone Telecommunications Co Ltd, Taiwan's second-largest mobile operator. It enables mobile devices to roam between Wireless local area networks and cellular mobile networks without interrupting Internet Protocol-sensitive applications. Refer thestar.

Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) equipment market expanding

"From 2004 through 2009, the market for WMN access points is expected to grow from $33.5 million to $974.3 million, the high-tech market research firm says.", reported by In-Stat.

WiMAX companies progress as planned

In August, Airspan Networks, Aperto Networks, Proxim, Sequans and Wavesat delivered their respective WiMAX solutions to Cetecom Labs, in Malaga, Spain, for conformance and interoperability testing.
Once the testing is completed, the WiMAX products will emerge in the market very soon.
Read more here.

Statistics of Telecommunication in Malaysia, Nov 2005

Here is the latest statistics about telecommunication industry in Malaysia (from the STAR).
The original source should be from MCMC.

TM Net introduces WiMAX in Q3 2006

Sometime ago I read that NasionCom is going to introduce wireless broadband using WiMax technologies very soon. However, not much news has been heard since then.

It is glad to hear that another company in Malaysia, namely TM Net Sdn Bhd, is planning to introduce wireless broadband to area with little or no wireline service.

According to the news from the STAR.

TM Net is working closely with Intel and Alcatel. Meanwhile, to my knowledge, Intel is currently planning to conduct trial in Putrajaya and Cyberjaya area. The equipment used is so called pre-WiMAX equipment as there is no certified product in the market at the moment.

The certification process only begin mid of 2005, thus, it is expected that certified WiMAX product would only be widely available in 2006. At the moment, the price of pre-WiMAX transceiver + baseband unit is quite expensive, generally in the range of RM20K to RM40K per unit. However, it is still consider competative in some circumstances when compared with the cost of provisioning of ADSL services.
Refer to my research paper in IEEE VTC 2005 Fall

"Study on the issue of provisioning broadband services: The case of Malaysia" for more details.
However, its advantages as compared to WiFi mesh is still yet to be proven.

802.11n standard could be delayed until mid-2007

The real data throughput of 802.11n is expected to reach a 540 Mbit/s and also offer a better operating distance than current networks. This is made possible by using multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) and OFDM.

While hoping that existing two industry groups, WWiSE and TGn Sync, to harmonise and consolidate their proposal into a single proposal, rumous spread that "four major companies -- Broadcom, Intel, Atheros and Marvell, holding the lion's share of the Wi-Fi chipset market -- have formed a third camp with the aim of writing a whole new proposal.",

Industry observers have called this an offensive gambit aimed at Airgo Networks, an emerging chipmaker, to be forced it to a fundamental redesign.

Read more from WirelessDesignOnline.

Moral of the story:
poor people is alway difficult to play game with rich people who can alway show hand and this poor one just could not follow but give up

Broadband wireless access

A company with core business in fibre optic communication approached me to provide advice on venturing into wireless access business yesterday.

The company has set up its optical backbone network, FTTC for condo, apartment in PJ and Penang. This is the right move for them. In fact Korean is using this model. The price for a 2Mbps uplink and downlink is only RM60. I think many people will want to go for it. Expecially, many people have fade up with the exisitng incumbant ISP.

It is also wise to look into tappinng the advantages of Wireless, where access to user to convenient, fast, and with mobility. Sound interesting in this combination of FTTC + Wireless. I suggest to them to use WiFi mesh which can provide coverage extension, a business model proposed for WiFi mesh.