But in SA and the rest of Africa, fixed-line infrastructure is lacking and there is a major problem with the theft of copper wire. Wireless communication is therefore a good alternative, he says.

Wuestenenk says there is a lot of potential for the new WiMAX wireless standard. And many telecommunications operators in Africa see this technology as the Holy Grail.

“A lot of tenders have been issued for WiMAX.”

In SA, the second network operator could use WiMAX to connect customers to its backbone network because it can provide connectivity over a distance of 5km to 10km from a local exchange, and African companies could do the same.

“We see WiMAX as a good alternative to copper wire.”

The first release of the WiMAX standard is 802.16d, which provides limited mobility, for example to connect a home or office environment to the network. The truly mobile version, 802.16e, is only expected to be released in a year or two, says Wuestenenk.

He says the main driver for the mobile version will be Intel, which is working on incorporating the technology in laptops and PDAs. Mobile operators are looking at how WiMAX can coexist with GSM, and if this happens users will be able to move between the two and carry on working or speaking on the phone, says Wuestenenk.

Mobile networks will evolve quickly, with new technologies coming down the line that are expected to provide 10 times more bandwidth capacity.

“Users will take up as much bandwidth as they can get.”

As bandwidth increases, many new mobile applications will emerge and operators will start offering more services such as video calls and video on demand.

With users looking to do a lot more with their mobile phones, advances in handset technology will need to keep up. Bandwidth- hungry applications such as mobile TV are a drain on battery life, says Wuestenenk.

All wireless speeds depend on the proximity of the user to the base station and the operators cannot put up too many base stations because of environmental issues, he says.

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