4.6.09

WiMax snippets

Russian operator Yota and Malaysian operator Packet One are in serious talks with several Indian firms to enter India’s Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) market and are also likely to emerge as bidders in the WiMAX auctions scheduled to be held later this year. The spread of mobile broadband is recognized by the government as being crucial to India’s development objectives, especially in rural areas in the areas of M-care, M-commerce, M-learning and M-governance. “We are open to coming in as a consultant with a minority stake or as a majority player bringing in the financial investment, experience and team to the Indian market,” Yegor Ivanov, Yota’s director, business development said. According to Ivanov, Yota is already in talks with MTNL to launch its WiMAX rollout in Delhi and Mumbai in a franchisee role along with a local partner. The total project cost is estimated to be in the range of $200 to $250 million. These negotiations, which are being conducted with the help of Intel Capital are expected to conclude by the end of June, he confirmed. Yota also admitted to being in talks with the Sun group and the Tatas for a partnership to enter the WiMAX space though he said the talks are not concrete at this stage. Yota has set aside $0.5 billion for international expansion. “Depending on the business case, we will invest this money in either India or China. We have some intentions to bid for WiMAX spectrum when the auctions are announced, but these are not concrete. We are still planning our entry strategy,” he said. Yota, which launched commercial Mobile WiMAX services in Moscow and St Petersburg on June 1 and Packet One Networks (P1) — a Malaysian converged telecom, broadband and Wimax service provider — are probably the only global operators to declare a serious investment appetite in India. “We will bid in India’s WiMAX auctions along with a local partner,” Michael Li, CEO, Packet One said. The mobile broadband opportunity in India is immense. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh together serve a broadband population of a little over 2 million which shows the tremendous room for growth. However, US operator Clearwire, which was also reported to have interest in bidding for WiMAX spectrum in India clarified that it does not have the investment appetite. Clearwire’s interest in international networks is only in helping other operators build networks. “We will not be investing our own money but are willing to offer our expertise to help governments and operators make the right technology choice,” Barry West, president, Clearwire said. Clearwire recently launched mobile WiMAX services in Atlanta and Georgia. State-run telecom firm BSNL on Wednesday said it has cancelled and re-invited fresh bids to roll out high-speed wireless broadband (WiMax) in 16 circles, but left out the three key circles of Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra as they already have wireless operations. “We re-invited the WiMax tenders on Wednesday in the circles we operate other than the three states — Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra — for the franchise-led roll-out”, BSNL chairman and managing director Kuldeep Goyal said

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