Spectrum woes to delay WiMAX deployment in the Asia-Pacific

(Business News & Technology News, 7 Mar 2007)

Despite the continuing developments and hype in WiMAX, spectrum availability issues are seen to delay the deployment of the IEEE 802.16 wireless standard in the Asia-Pacific. According to Nathan Burley, analyst at Ovum, of the key licensed WiMAX spectrum bands—2.3GHz, 2.5GHz, 3.3GHz and 3.5GHz—no one is broadly available across the Asia-Pacific region, and licenses are often unfavorable to broad deployment.

However, he said that as more spectrum are becoming available and licensed in other markets, and many regulators are now actively promoting WiMAX, the spectrum availability in the Asia-Pacific will be much clearer by 2008.

According to Burley, the most promising developed Asia-Pacific markets for WiMAX include South Korea, Taiwan and Japan; meanwhile, WiMAX will potentially have the largest influence in Pakistan, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia.

The business model for WiMAX and its likely success depends significantly on the frequency at which it is deployed, Burley said. The lower the frequency, the better the coverage and the more likely the business model will be a success. Therefore, although the 3.5GHz band may see WiMAX deployed, the spectrum may not be ideal for supporting mobility; instead it is more suited to fixed solutions. The 3.5GHz spectrum is available in Australia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Sri Lanka and the Philippines.

Another drawback of 3.5GHz spectrum is that in some markets, licensing conditions restrict mobility for holders as they do not have mobile licenses, while those licenses that are already awarded are also often fragmented and do not provide wider area or national coverage—reducing the viability of the business case for larger operators.

The 2.3GHz spectrum, on the other hand, is becoming available in some markets, as is 2.5GHz; however, in some markets this band is being reserved for 3G extension, Burley added.