Wimax rollout delayed
Interviewed at Telkom’s SATNAC conference in Stellenbosch last week, COO Ruben September said the company has appointed Siemens and Alvarion as its technology suppliers for the rollout and that it’s in the process of deploying the technology in South Africa’s major metropolitan areas.
"We’ll be starting tests on the new network within the new few weeks," September said.
Telkom chief technology officer Thami Msimango said that part of the reason for the delay was waiting for chipsets that would allow it to move from the fixed version of Wimax – called 802.16d – to the mobile version – called 802.16e – without having to replace equipment they’d already invested in.
However, that’s unlikely to be the case, as numerous Wimax vendors have indicated that the various standards mean that a software upgrade to implement the new technology wouldn’t currently be possible.
Telkom plans to use Wimax to supplement its ADSL service in areas where it hasn’t yet been able to reach or in rural areas that would never be able to access broadband due to the range of constrictions with regard to ADSL technologies.
Wimax has the potential to offer extremely high speeds – up to 70Mbps – over very long distances, close to 50km. However, those speeds and distances are typically achieved under ideal conditions, including minimal network loading and a clear line of sight between the base station and the client’s receiver.
When finally launched, Wimax will complement its existing ADSL service and should help Telkom cut back the massive installation backlog that’s built up as demand for broadband ballooned.
Wimax will primarily offer a similar service to ADSL, and Msimango said users could expect the new service to offer similar speeds to those delivered to existing ADSL clients.
Though September was unwilling to divulge the way pricing would be structured for the new service, he said Telkom’s approach is to offer wholesale services. "We’ve woken up to the fact that we have both a wholesale and a retail business."
That’s good news for SA’s Internet service providers, as it will allow them to sell access on top of the Wimax network as currently offered on its ADSL service.
Mark van Vuuren, MD for fixed networks at Siemens Telecommunications, said that those vendors predicting that the mobile version of Wimax would be ready for commercial rollout early in 2007 were being overly optimistic, as the first round of testing to ensure that different systems work together will only start at end-2007. And that – given the history of certifying the fixed version of Wimax – is unlikely to be a short process.
To certify the technology, the different companies producing it will have to co-operate to ensure that their individual equipment coheres. For example, a modem made by Siemens will have to be able to connect seamlessly to a base station made by any other manufacturer.
While the fixed Wimax will offer Telkom a solution to its immediate problems concerning its broadband rollout, the network’s future doesn’t lie with that technology but with the mobile version and, eventually, with what the industry calls 4G wireless technologies.
Mobile Wimax will offer not only the ability to access the Internet but also position Telkom to take on the mobile networks by offering a fully mobile service, including voice calls on cellphones.
South Korea was one of the early adopters of that technology using a non-standard version of Mobile Wimax called WiBro. That technology is able to deliver speeds of 2Mbps to handsets travelling at speeds of up to 140km/hour.
However, the real excitement will arrive with 4G technologies, which are currently in research & development laboratories.
Hung Song, vice-president for global marketing and groups at Samsung Telecommunications, speaking at the conference, said that at end-August the company could demonstrate prototypes for 4G systems running at 100Mbps to a device travelling at 70km/hour, as well as speeds of 1Gbps – faster than the speeds currently achieved on most corporate local area networks to fixed devices.
With bandwidth such as that available, it’s understandable that telecoms providers are excited, even if it’s only scheduled to be deployed after 2010.
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