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ight companies, including telecommunication heavyweight PT Telkom, won tenders for Wimax broadband operating licenses on Friday.

Minister of Information and Communication Mohammad Nuh said the eight winners of operating licenses for the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access technology fulfilled all the main criteria, including having sufficient infrastructure and a minimum usage of between 30 and 40 percent of local products.

In addition to Telkom, the other winners were PT Indosat Mega Media, PT Internux, PT First Media, PT Jasnita Telekomindo, PT Berca Hardayaperkasa, PT Rahajasa Media Internet also called the Indonesian WiMAX Consortium, as well as a consortium made up of PT Comtronics Systems and PT Adiwarta Perdania.

The minister demanded the winners provide fast access telecommunication services at affordable prices for their customers, once the project reached completion.

Wimax is an advanced telecommunications technology providing wireless transmission of data using portable and fully mobile Internet access.

It provides high-throughput broadband connections over long distances without having to build costly infrastructure and large numbers of transmission towers.

The technology, which provides an alternative to cable and digital subscriber lines (DSL), has a coverage of some 50 kilometers in radius from each base station, and has relatively low-investment costs compared to existing 3G technologies.

First Media, one of the winners, was confident about the future of the technology.

"I am optimistic about the future of this tender, as the number of Internet users rises exponentially every year," said Dicky Moechtar, First Media director.

The minister said the first auctions, which were conducted this year, were aimed at preparing domestic industries to providing infrastructure for Wimax technology.

"Our research and development division is expected to produce the infrastructure between 2010 and 2011," he said.

Seventy-three companies started vying for Wimax tenders at the end of April, after the ministry announced auctions for the operating licenses, followed by the setting of reserve prices for the Wimax tenders in early June.

Of the 15 Wimax zones on offer, the highest reserve prices were given to licenses operating the technology in Greater Jakarta and Banten, while the lowest prices were given to Papua and Maluku.

Operating licenses for each zone were given to a maximum of two operators.

The highest bidding prices were offered by PT First Media, at Rp 121.2 billion and PT Internux, at Rp 110.03 billion.