WiMAX, a new wireless broadband technology is going to be added to Malaysia's wireless broadband services, and the licenses were granted to relatively unknown/new companies as far as I see, instead of the telco giants currently operating in Malaysia.
Sounds pretty encouraging, which means TM and the other big telco companies really have to improve their services to compete with WiMAX service providers.
Here's an excerpt from The Star Online's article on this:
Four get licences to run WiMAX
By STEVEN PATRICK
CYBERJAYA: Malaysians will soon enjoy greater mobility when accessing the Internet – no need to be tied to modems, a WiFi hotspot or a cybercafe.
WiMAX, a technology that enables wireless broadband access, is close to being implemented nationwide after the Government awarded four companies yesterday with licences to operate such networks.
Bizsurf (M) Sdn Bhd, MIB Comm Sdn Bhd, Asiaspace Dotcom Sdn Bhd and Redtone-CNX Broadband Sdn Bhd were given licences to operate WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) networks.
Once these are in operation, Malaysians will be able to surf the Internet at ultra-high speeds from any point in the country, as well as enjoy new or improved Web-based services.
The four beat 13 other companies including telecommunications heavyweights DiGi.Com Bhd, Maxis Communications Bhd and TM Bhd.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) expects the winners to roll out their WiMAX services to 25% of the population in the areas given to them by year-end.
Also, it expects the Internet access speed to be no less than 1Mbps (megabit per second), which is equivalent to 1,000 kilobits per second. In comparison, Internet access via dial-up service is 56 kilobits per second.
MCMC also stipulated that the wireless 1Mbps service should be at “an affordable price.”
There are still limitations to the technology. According to Wikipedia:
A commonly held misconception is that WiMAX will deliver 70 Mbit/s, over 70 miles (112.6 kilometers). Each of these is true individually, given ideal circumstances, but they are not simultaneously true. In practice this means that in line-of-sight environments you could deliver symmetrical speeds of 10Mbps at 10km but in urban environments it is more likely that 30% of installations may be non-line-of-sight and therefore users may only receive 10Mbps over 2km.
So the quality of the service still boils down to how much infrastructure is set up to handle user capacity.
(Image from The Star Online)
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1 comment:
we'd be overwhelmed with invisible waves... geez... wonder if it affects the microbes hehe...
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