4 companies awarded WiMax licenses

Government of Malaysia awarded four companies on 16 March 2007 with licences to operate WiMax networks. The companies are: Bizsurf (M) Sdn Bhd, MIB Comm Sdn Bhd, Asiaspace Dotcom Sdn Bhd and Redtone-CNX Broadband Sdn Bhd.

Bizsurf, MIB Comm and Asiaspace Dotcom will cover peninsular Malaysia while Redtone-CNX Broadband will serve Sabah and Sarawak.

According to the Star, MCMC expects the winners to roll out their WiMAX services to 25% of the population in the areas given to them by year-end. Also, it expects the Internet access speed to be no less than 1Mbps. MCMC also stipulated that the wireless 1Mbps service should be at “an affordable price.” At the end of third year, the companies are expected to roll out the services to at least 40% of the population in the areas they control. MCMC also wants each company to invest between RM250mil and RM300mil during the first three years of WiMAX implementation.

MIB Comm Sdn Bhd (owned by YTL-e and Green Packet) may get WiMax License

A news from TheStar says that the companied owned by YTL-e and Green Packet may be awarded the WiMax license.

Malaysia broadband penetration by end of 2006

The government aims to achieve a broadband penetration of 25% of total households by end of 2006 under its MyICMS master plan. However, as at Q3 2006, the penetration rate is only 10% of the total households. Judging from the past few quarters statistics (7%, 8%, 9.1%, 10% in Q4 2005, Q1, Q2, Q3 2006 respectively; http://www.cmc.gov.my/facts_figures/stats/ViewStatistic.asp?cc=23807127&srid=85569401), it would be extremely hard if not impossible for Malaysia to achieve the specified target in its MyICMS master plan.

Non-cellular communication based wireless technologies such as WiMax, WiFi mesh, etc, could be the way to improve the situation. I believe that this is why the Ministry of Energy, Communications and Multimedia is acting carefully in selected companies to be awarded WiMax licenses and the evaluation process has been delayed. According to a report by the edge, 3G spectrum holders would be side-stepped if other candidates have the capability to roll out WiMAX on concerns that they may not roll out WiMAX wholeheartedly. Three of the country's four 3G spectrum holders are among the 17 applicants. They are Telekom Malaysia Bhd, Maxis Communications Bhd and MiTV Corp Bhd. Time dotCom Bhd chose not to participate.

Non-cellular communication based wireless technologies have a number of advantages:
1) low cost deployment (the equipment are normally relatively cheap as compared to cellular base station, etc)
2) fast deployment (no need to lay cable vs ADSL)
3) possible to be used in unlicensed band: This is important in encouraging innovation of new technology which can further improve quality and cost. Typical example is that the original WiFi/IEEE 802.11b has now been improved into many versions, a, g, e, n, s, etc. The emerging of WiFi mesh has allowed radio coverage extention while minimising backhaul connection cost

WiMax license will not be granted in 2006

According to news from ITU's newslog:
The MCMC had originally intended to announce the winners by 31 October, but has yet to provide a revised timetable for issuing the concessions or confirm how many licences will be granted. It has requested that all applicants re-submit their applications outlining nationwide business plans, as it will not grant concessions to companies looking to roll out only regional services. The government has said it will offer as many as four WiMAX licences, though it may only distribute two concessions in the first tranche.

About WiMax technology & prospect

Here is a good introduction to WiMax.

The prospect of WiMax is definitely good. It is expected that Total Asia Pacific WiMAX Service Subscribers Expected To Reach 13.98 Million In 2011

WiMax deployment status in Malaysia: 20 July 2006

The Malaysian Communications & Multimedia Commission (MCMC) received 17 submissions for the controversial 2.3GHz broadband wireless access spectrum – commonly known as WiMax – tender exercise but will only evaluate the applications after addressing the concerns of the government.

The MCMC said this in a statement after Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik called for a tender recall, alleging that the commission did not follow the ministry’s specifications for the tender bid.

Read more on the details at theStar

The 17 applicants was Telekom Malaysia Bhd, Maxis Communications Bhd, MiTV Corp Bhd, DiGi.Com Bhd, NasionCom Sdn Bhd, REDtone-CNX Broadband Sdn Bhd, MIB Comm Sdn Bhd (controlled by Mesdaq Market leader Green Packet Bhd), Jaring Communications Sdn Bhd, Asiaspace dotcom Sdn Bhd, Celcom Timur (Sabah) Sdn Bhd, Fibrecomm Network (M) Sdn Bhd, SGR Capital Sdn Bhd, GO Lightspeed Broadband Sdn Bhd, Bizsurf (M) Sdn Bhd, IP Mobility Sdn Bhd, Optical Communications Engineering Sdn Bhd and Electcoms Wireless Sdn Bhd.

Potential of WiFi Broadband Wireless Access (BWA)

Although recently WiMax has received much attention, but I do feel that the potential of WiFi has not been fully exploited. Refer to theStar for an article on the potential of WiFi.

With the introduction of WiFi mesh, I have no doubt that it would definitely promote further the exploitation of WiFi for BWA.

Let's read an anticle on the advantages of using WiFi mesh for provisioning of BWA.

Green Packet's last mile wireless solution

Re: theStar

Currently, the only company with last mile connection is Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM), which owns this facility through its fixed phone lines to homes and offices.

However, Green Packet, a Malaysian high tech company, will soon offer competition to TM’s Streamyx Internet service. The company has developed a product called SONmetro. This technology offers high speed, affordable wireless access to “the last mile,”

While there are other technologies for wireless broadband access, Green Packet is convinced its product offers higher speed Internet access at an affordable price. Putting its money where its mouth is, it will soon network Klang Valley to its wireless Internet facilities.

The company will start to deploy its SONmetro infrastructure next month (Aug 2006) and launch the service possibly before year-end (2006). It will extend the network to other towns in a later phase.

At the same time, Green Packet is scheduled to set up a similar wireless Internet network in Bahrain, to be followed by Saudi Arabia and Dubai next year.

2nd 3G licence award in Malaysia March 2006

In the second 3G licence award by MCMC, the winners are

• TTdotCom Sdn Bhd and
  
• MiTV Corp Sdn Bhd

The loser was

• DiGi.Com Bhd

Digi is the third largest mobile operator in the country, which many people had expected to be the frontrunner for the spectrum. However, the decision of MCMC has caused a big surprise to the public. One of the possible reasons that Digi was not successfull is probably it does not offer much difference in terms of evolution of services and network as compared with existing 3G license holders (Maxis and TM).

As for MiTV, it has abondon of content which is lacking in Maxis and TM. This may be an appealing factor for this company.

Meanwhile, TTdotCom – a unit of Time dotCom Bhd in which Khazanah Nasional Bhd has a stake – gets a new lease of life and it plans to use the 3G spectrum to roll out broadband services.

Point to point directional antenna alignment

During a recent consultancy work, I faced a problem in getting good antenna alignment.
I was reported that the packet error is very low or zero, latency is high (a few hundred ms), but very low throughput. The SNR is about 10dB.
The most possible reason: distance too far (1km in this experiment with IEEE 802.11a). However, if this is the case, the packet error should be high. But, may be due to no or minimum connection.
In addition, given the fact that antenna beamwidth = 30 degree. The alignment should not be too critical. If I move closer I can get higher SNR or throughput, then that may be the problem is due to distant too long.

Here is a practical procedure that I am going to try.

WiFi Mesh Routers Design and Development Company in Malaysia

While chairing a technical seminar, I came to realise that a local company in Malaysia is also doing R&D in WiFi Mesh: Actinium Network. According to its official website, Actinium Network Sdn. Bhd. is a research & development company, MSC status company that focuses on design and development of embedded system, and wired/wireless solutions. In fact, they already have products in the market all over the world.

Chatting with their CTO, I found that we shared a common view on the positive prospect of WiFi mesh products, in particular in the provisioning of low cost broadband wireless solution.

First WiMAX certified products : Jan 2006

WiMAX Forum Announces First WiMAX Forum Certified Products
The WiMAX Forum revealed the first companies and products to complete certification and interoperability testing, including Aperto Networks' PacketMAX 5000 base station, Redline Communications' RedMAX AN-100U base station, SEQUANS Communications' SQN2010 SoC base station solution, and Wavesat's miniMAX customer premise equipment (CPE) solution.

About one year ago, the price was about US15,000 for one pair of BS+CPE. This is definitely too high for pervasive broadband wireless access. Hope fully with the more certified WiMAX products, the price will drop very fast. Meanwhile, I am also looking forward to the incorporation of WiMAX chip into notebooks which will make to CPE price much affordable for end users.

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.