News

WiMAX? An offer "we can refuse" says Deutsche Telekom.

by Andrew Orlowski | posted on 08 November 2006

Deutsche Telekom has ruled itself out of the WiMAX business in its home country for the forseeable future.

German regulator BNetzA wants WiMAX to serve the country's rural areas as a backup to DSL, with a quarter of the country covered by 2011, and it's put spectrum in the 3,400-3,600Mhz frequency up for auction.

So far the auction has attracted over 1,200 bidders, but Deutsche Telekom isn't one of them.

Late last week the giant telco confirmed it wouldn't be participating in the auction and sought to use alternative technologies for rural high-speed broadband.

The interest in Germany comes despite the long delay in finalising 802.16e, the mobile WiMAX specification. And as we pointed out here recently, without global agreement on a universal frequency, investments will remain patchwork and piecemeal.

Germany's regulator wants the first deployments to be ready for 2009. Registration for potential applicants closed today.