Telkom set to launch WiMAX wireless service in Q1 2010

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Fri, 09/25/2009 12:17 PM  |  Business

The Indonesian telecommunications industry will enter a new phase in the first quarter of next year with the deployment of the country's first WiMAX wireless services by PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom).

Telkom consumer director Ermady Dahlan told The Jakarta Post on Thursday that the company was in the middle of completing the administrative requirements needed in order to obtain the operational licenses.

Ministry of Communications and Information spokesman Gatot Dewa Broto said his ministry would issue WiMAX operational licenses by the end of October after a series of operational feasibility tests based on the completion of the administrative requirements.

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 coverage of some 50 kilometers in radius from each base station, and has relatively low-investment costs compared to existing 3G technologies.

Ermady said the company had been carrying out surveys and procurement arrangements for the infrastructure, which would be set up after the company received the operational license.

He added that Telkom was ready to comply with the required minimum of 40 percent local content in the products to be used for setting up the necessary infrastructure. (nia)

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Jack_2stroke (not verified), jakarta rock city — Wed, 09/30/2009 - 1:07pm

im happy to hear that,,but when wimax launch n so many people migrate from various isp like speedy,,smart jump,indosatM2,matrix broadband etc,,n wimax speed become sucks,,i can predict this will happen,,bcos as far as i know,theres still no one isp who can maintain speed quality,,

Nat (not verified), sukabumi — Mon, 09/28/2009 - 7:06pm

This article gives misleading about Wimax. I am an Radio consultant who has deployed Wimax in Japan, Indonesia and Cambodia. There are some important points here: 1) you will not typically get 50kms coverage. If Wimax and 3G used the same frequency, the coverage would be approximately the same. You could get 20kms maybe if users had antennas on their roofs, the were no obstructions and the frequency used was low. 2) wimax in cities will need a similar cell density to 3G if the frequency is similar. If Telkom is going to use low frequencies (450MHz), yes the signals can go a little further, but they also become very difficult to manage and in the end they limit the capacity of the network as they will interfere with each other. 3) 1 Wimax cell has a limited capacity, yes, it can be more and faster than a 3G cell as Wimax can use a wider slice of frequency spectrum. But in the end it is still limited, so there is no way you are going to cover 50kms (or even 10kms) with one cell and serve 1000's of users with fast internet. No way. In summary, for Telkom to offer a competing and better data service to 3G, they need 100's of towers in Jakarta alone. To achieve this properly by 1Q 2010, is not really possible. The author implies that Wimax can be deployed with cells covering massive areas and the speed will be high. Not possible. As per usual in this country, Telkom will deploy a network and the service offered will be poor and will get worse as more people get on the network. That is a guarantee.

Didi Karjadi (not verified), Bandung — Sat, 09/26/2009 - 1:46pm

Great! But when are they going to improve the awful service of Speedy?

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