Caving in to operator pressure, the Indonesian regulator is considering allowing new Wimax licensees to upgrade to mobile Wimax
The licensees have been lobbying the telecom regulator, BRTI, to let them deploy the 802.16e mobile Wimax on the grounds that the fixed Wimax standard is not suited to either urban or rural deployment.
The government awarded licenses last year, mandating the older 802.16d fixed Wimax standard.
Operators claim that metropolitan coverage is blocked by buildings and in rural areas the hilly terrain and large amounts of foliage cause signal interference with 16d.
“We are still [deciding]… how to accelerate 2.3GHz operators so they can be commercial,” Heru Sutadi, commissioner of regulator BRTI, told telecomasia.net.
“We have got a lot of input from operators and vendors, so we will study the input to consider any policy we can issue so all BWA 2.3GHz operators can sell their product…as soon as possible.”
Sutadi says the government has already taken back one 2.3GHz license because the licensee failed to pay the upfront fee and annual fee based on last year’s auction.
He says another 2.3GHz licensees has submitted a request to the government for “testing and checking” its 16d network.
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