Wimax firms agree to share infrastructure

Malaysia's four Wimax licence holders have set up a consortium to build a common infrastructure for their wireless broadband service. 

Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik said the infrastructure would be jointly owned and used by the companies. 

He said this after attending the SMK Methodist Open Day here, about 60km from Ipoh, on Saturday. 

In March, the Government awarded Wimax licences to Asiaspace Dotcom Sdn Bhd, Redtone-CNX Broadband Sdn Bhd, Bizsurf (M) Sdn Bhd (a unit of YTL Corp) and Packet One Networks Sdn Bhd (formerly known as MIB Comm). 

Wimax or “worldwide interoperability for microwave access” is a technology that enables wireless broadband access over an area. 

Dr Lim said the companies had been given until the end of next quarter to roll out the services. 

He said Wimax players would still be hampered because they did not have total ownership of the backhaul trunk fibre. 

A backhaul trunk is a land link between a receiving station to a local switching network or population centre. 

“I am trying to arrange for them to have their own backhaul trunk fibre as well as an international landing station,” he said. 

He said there were four or five trunk fibre, all except one are owned by Telekom Malaysia Bhd. 

He added that he had been talking with Telekom on the need to improve services and compete with other providers. 

“You cannot compete on an infrastructure monopoly. It should be on the services. 

“The infrastructure should be industry-neutral,” he said.