Dialling into wireless options
"It’s imperative to invest in the so-called next generation network (NGN) and new wireless technologies," says Telkom chief financial officer Kaushik Patel.
Telkom’s decision to fork out R30bn on NGN capital expenditure over the next five years may have incensed the fixed line operator’s shareholders, who are seemingly addicted to higher dividends. However, Patel remains adamant that the future will vindicate him.
Mandla Mchunu, Icasa’s spectrum licence manager, says the telecoms regulator has been inundated with applications for access to the WiMax spectrum, which will provide the backbone of next generation, wireless solutions from SA’s telecoms operators. "We’ve compared notes with our counterparts in Europe, the US and Asia and found that they were faced with the same problem."
Mchunu says that the ease with which telecoms operators are able to deploy wireless backbone and lower costs was the biggest drawcard of wireless infrastructure.
Icasa has only issued four licences for commercial WiMax services: to wireless broadband solutions provider iBurst, State-owned signal distributor Sentech, second network operator Neotel, and Telkom, which has been granted access to the 3,5MHz WiMax spectrum, enabling it to roll out a WiMax network.
Andy McKinnon, Motorola wireless broadband director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, says compared to fixed line wireless infrastructure, "it’s almost certainly guaranteed to provide a good return on investment".
Recent research by technology research group IDC suggests that nearly 2% of globally shipped laptops will have embedded WiMax chips by early 2007, confirming how important wireless technology has become.
Finweek
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