Intel and iBurst's embedded WiMAX plans
In April this year MyBroadband revealed that Intel South Africa, in conjunction with iBurst holding company Wireless Business Solutions (WBS), was planning to roll out WiMAX embedded laptops to the South African public in coming months.
In terms of the agreement Intel will provide WiMAX embedded devices that would act as a virtual service provider for iBurst services through the WBS Commercial WiMAX Spectrum Licence which the wireless provider currently holds.
Intel Manager for Market Development within the WiMAX Program Office, Gavin Coetzer, has now revealed that the product offering will be ready for launch by the FIFA 2010 World Cup but is being hampered by the lack of additional spectrum allocation by national telecommunications regulator ICASA.
“We are waiting for ICASA to release additional spectrum. As Intel and WBS we will be ready by the World Cup to demonstrate to the international community that we are adopting 4G type technologies,” said Coetzer, who added that unless the spectrum is released by December this offering will not see its targeted launch date.
iBurst currently holds 15MHz of spectrum within the 2.5GHz band. Despite this iBurst CEO Jannie van Zyl has revealed that 30MHz of spectrum, an amount which the company has already applied for, is vital for the progress of the Intel agreement and iBurst’s future endeavours as a whole.
“It is crucial that the amount of spectrum allocated to iBurst is substantially increased. Not only do we need to fulfill our obligations in terms of the Intel / WBS agreement but a proper allocation of spectrum will enable the South African broadband consumer to enjoy a world class WiMAX service. This has obvious implications for next year’s soccer World Cup.”
Despite this Van Zyl stressed that the issue of spectrum allocation is not as simple as it would seem, adding that iBurst “does not subscribe to the idea that [ICASA] would be deliberately stalling the process”
“Spectrum is a finite resource that has been allocated over the years to meet prevailing needs. Unfortunately, it is not very easy to ‘un-allocate’ spectrum, especially if it is in active use,” said Van Zyl. “These factors contribute to a very complex environment and ICASA is forced to be very careful in getting a system in place that meets local and international guidelines and requirements.”
Coetzer feels however that the regulator’s “delay in making a decision on how the spectrum should be allocated is limiting consumer choice for broadband”.
“It’s frightening,” he added, “we are a tier one territory and tier three countries are leapfrogging us due to delays within the market. We should be leading.”
Technical Details
Coetzer revealed that upon launch of the service Intel plans to make 32 embedded laptop models available within the market across a range of manufacturers. The predicted average cost of each model is not yet available.
With regards to the cost of connectivity Van Zyl said that, “iBurst’s current fixed WiMAX broadband business pricing starts from around R860 per month on a 24-month contract which is a reasonable offering for a business product. However we would hope to be in a position to decrease WiMAX prices and offer a pricing structure more comparable to the top-end 3G services currently in the market.”
Initially the coverage areas should be “geographically modest when compared to iBurst Wireless, however our WiMAX coverage will still cover a good majority of the country’s business enterprises,” said Van Zyl, although coverage will grow with the popularity of the product offering.
This embedded WiMAX service has already been launched in a number of countries, most notably in Russia says Coetzer, which has over 200 000 active subscribers. Usage statistics show that the average customer uses 10GB of bandwidth a month. The highest number yet recorded in one month on a single device is 1.5 TB.
A general problem
Intel and iBurst are not the only industry players who are suffering due to ICASAs delayed spectrum allocation. Other offerings such a DStv mobile, which is equally dependant on the issuance of spectrum, will be delayed until such time as the national regulator decides to move forward.
This may result in a loss on investment for companies which are targeting next year’s football World Cup as the ideal platform from which to launch wireless services.
iBurst & Intel WiMax – comments and views
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