Cell C trials WiMax

[Peter7]

http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/telecoms/2006/0606281041.asp?A=CEL&S=Cellular&O=FPIN

[Johannesburg, 28 June 2006] - Mobile operator Cell C revealed it is conducting tests to determine the feasibility of rolling out a WiMax network in SA.

“A WiMax network could rival [Telkom's] ADSL both in terms of performance and price,” said base station subsystems engineering manager at Cell C Jitesh Huri. He spoke to ITWeb on the sidelines of AMC's Broadband Strategies for the Mobile Market conference, in Sandton yesterday.

There are no firm intentions to roll-out the technology just yet, Huri cautioned. The trials (which have been conducted at Cell C's Johannesburg offices since early in the year) are to determine the viability of WiMax from a technological and business perspective, he said.

So many incumbents and industry players have "tested" WiMax and none of them implemented it. Me thinks the reason is that it'll make their existing infrastructures obsolete in a sense (and they've invested millions into them). Korea and Japan are starting 4G rollout which is based on WiMax. The SA incumbents have invested millions just recently to get 3G and HSPDA going.

Can anyone one say "please open the freaking market up so someone else other than incumbents can provide WiMax - enough already"?!

 

[JStrike]

Ahh, we are not that badly off. The US is behind us, and we are pretty even with Europe. Korea and Japan are exceptions to the norm.
The reaons why everyone is testing wimax and not implementing it is because it is a very new and untested technology. Hell, Intel are only adding it to their chipsets at the end of the year

 

[Peter7]

Ahh, we are not that badly off. The US is behind us, and we are pretty even with Europe. Korea and Japan are exceptions to the norm.
The reaons why everyone is testing wimax and not implementing it is because it is a very new and untested technology. Hell, Intel are only adding it to their chipsets at the end of the year

In the US and Europe there isn't really a need for WiMax. With excellent competition the fixed-line and WiFi infrastructures are "sufficient" in terms of broadband access and affordability. And they're pretty affordable.

However, over here in good ol' SA we don't have good infrastructure (looking at broadband penetration rates) and competition is virtually non-existent (in terms where the customer is benefiting from affordable access) in a mostly "monopolistic" environment.

WiMax would essentially jump start the broadband penetration rate and also drive down costs in one sense (since penetration rates will improve drastically). Another thing is we'd have broadband! - not these 384k, 512k services. 4G would be another avenue for mobile users in the future (although this is still pretty new tech).

I guess my main rant is about cheap broadband access and someone other than these incumbents that have been riding the gravy train for all these years and refuse to be competitive.

Oh yeah, Nigeria and Kenya have already started rolling out WiMax in their countries.

 

[krycor]

After seeing the latency on hsdpa compared to Adsl shaped, if it weren't for pricing and one or two picky things i'd move over. Wimax has a bigger range so lets see what pricing models the company adopts. (tho bandwidth costs alot - saix/is ) Still combined with the access charge that gets worked in, if only it would be lower than our adsl prices to give em a shock.