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SINGAPORE—From
availability of devices and spectrum allocation, firms
participating at Asia’s largest gathering of
communications technology vendors here are still trying
to hurdle such obstacles to WiMAX.
The
Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access is
expected to hasten people’s access to information while
moving around. WiMAX is expected to allow consumers to
send and receive e-mails, download and send data over
the Internet, and call or receive phone calls using one
device.
The
question with that is whether the device can be used for
the whole day, as mobile phones are, consulting firm ABI
Research executive Jake Saunders said at the Asia WiMAX
Forum Congress at the Suntec Convention Center.
Likewise, Saunders noted that when WiMAX is mentioned,
people usually think about devices that can be carried
in pockets. That’s the challenge to Intel Corp. and
chipset manufacturers like them: to pack power and speed
in such small appliances, PT Telkomsel
Indonesia
general manager Dedi Suherman said.
Saunders
and Suherman were discussants at a panel discussion on
how technologies like 2G, 3G, wireless fidelity and
WiMAX could work hand in hand as operators like PT
Telkom and Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. try to
squeeze revenue as well as ride on the growing
information demands of their users.
Motorola
Inc. executive Mike Ropicky said the revenue potential
is growing. Two years ago, Ropicky said, the number of
users of broadband access stood at 218 million; this is
expected to post an 18-percent year-on-year growth up to
2010, with an expected 416 million users worldwide.
Users of
wireless broadband access were 5 million in 2006 and are
expected to number 73 million by 2010, Ropicky said; a
factor is the increasing cost of copper, the metal used
for wires and cables.
“Three
years ago, our customers used broadband services to
search and research information and send and receive
e-mails. Three years later today, things have changed,”
said SingTel chief executive Peter Heng.
Heng
said such changes are pushing SingTel to adopt WiMAX, so
much so that the company “is rolling out the technology
in the Philippines and Australia this year.”
Heng
identified Globe Telecom as SingTel’s partner in the
Philippines. Ropicky, on the other hand, said Motorola
has been working with Smart Communications Inc. for the
past two years.
“Spectrum is one of the issues that needs to be resolved
to identify WiMAX potentials in the
Philippines,”
Ropicky told reporters.
“But the
interest there is still very strong, and that is very
important,” Ropicky added.
From
just seven companies in the first WiMAX forum in 2003,
there are now 530, according to organizers. There are
also more than 260 commercial WiMAX deployments in 110
countries. |
