Motorola’s first major WiMAX Network goes live in Asia

Motorola announced today that Wateen Telecom of Pakistan has taken its first 802.16e WiMAX deployment live.  Wateen Telecom which is a part of Warid Telecom International, is offering WiMAX voice, data, Internet and multimedia services to both residential and corporate subscribers.  It is a nationwide network covering 22 cities and is the first major live network on this scale.  This particular deployment is using the 3.5GHz range that was allocated by the PTA the communications regulatory body there.

Warid Telecom provides GSM services to almost 8 million customers which is about 17% of the market.  Other players such as Mobilink and Burraq Telecom are also working on their plans for a WiMAX offering.  Motorola is working with these players too for supplying the required equipment.  It is expected that in Pakistan, as in other Asian markets like India, WiMAX will be used primarily to provide internet services.   Competition is rife.  A typical 512K DSL connection is offered for Rs. 2,000 (US $33.33) a month with free installation. The current price point of the WiMAX CPEs are higher than other options (fiber, DSL or cable) and that puts a damp on residential customers. 

Phil Marshall, vice president, Enabling Technologies, Yankee Group says

“2008 promises to be another exciting year for WiMAX and the entire 4G landscape. We expect that in 2008 several large scale national WiMAX deployments will be announced in Asia and Europe. Currently our conservative forecasts are calling for 37 million WiMAX globally subscribers by 2011.”

So, there you go - another number thrown out as a prediction.  Will it or won’t it fly?  I have covered about the numbers bandied around in another post.  My suggestion: Keep those finger crossed, will ya?