WiMAX Forum Launches Indonesia Chapter

(Business News & Technology News, 14 Dec 2009)

The WiMAX Forum has established a new regional chapter in Indonesia to promote the benefits of the global WiMAX ecosystem to Indonesian government officials, regulators, operators and customers. An essential technology to accelerate broadband growth throughout Indonesia, WiMAX provides a scalable and economical way to provide high-speed broadband Internet with the recently auctioned 2.3GHz spectrum and existing 3.3GHz allocations.

The WiMAX Forum Indonesia (WFID) chapter’s membership comprises industry officers from Global WiMAX Forum members, Indonesia WiMAX Operators and manufacturers, MASTEL and Indonesia Wireless Broadband (ID-WiBB). The signing of the MOU between WiMAX Forum and MASTEL in September of 2009 was the starting point for WiMAX Forum activities in Indonesia.

“The WiMAX Forum congratulates the Indonesian government on the efficiency and speed at which the WiMAX opportunity has been brought to a reality,” said Dr. Mohammad Shakouri, WiMAX Forum Vice President and Board Member. “As part of our goal of expediting deployment of WiMAX networks around the globe, the WiMAX Forum established the Indonesia chapter in response to the increasing commitment by Indonesian technology leaders and the collective ecosystem’s clear and unwavering commitment to advancing WiMAX adoption in this region.”

The WiMAX Forum also announced the appointment of Sylvia Sumarlin as Regional Director of the WFID to lead the chapter’s efforts.

“The WiMAX Forum recognizes the national policy objectives upon which Indonesia has based its WiMAX initiative,” said Sumarlin. “We applaud Indonesia for the early release of its WiMAX spectrum and encourage the Indonesian government to expand spectrum availability even more. The right spectrum policy would help achieve affordable broadband, attract investment, and pave way for successful commercial deployment. Such policy includes minimum spectrum size of 30MHz per operator, nation-wide licenses and technology neutrality which could be alleviated by the early release of the remaining 60MHz of spectrum in the 2.3GHz band.”