News

Blow to WiMAX credibility by Hong Kong provider - withdraws from licence auction

WiMAX is looking too expensive, if Governments hope to milk the technology, says ­Hong Kong operator SmarTone-Vodafone. The provider "has announced that it plans to migrate its network towards an LTE platform".

The announcement was made after it withdrew from last week's WiMAX spectrum licence auction "after the cost of the licence started to exceed the cost of deploying the LTE upgrade," reported Cellular-News

Ironically, the news may enhance the appeal of WiMAX in other markets, especially in under-resourced countries where there is little comms infrastructure.

The cost of WiMAX in low-revenue countries could make it unappealing, if Governments believe they can "skim" the technology for large-scale licensing fees (as the 3G spectrum was exploited in Europe). The decision by a high-tech comms user area, like Hong Kong, that it only makes sense if the licence is virtually free, will quite probably encourage developers in third world territories.

Cellular-News commented:

SmarTone-Vodafone said that its maximum bid price for the WiMAX license was based on the incremental value attributable to implementing LTE with the new spectrum, and the savings made upon return of existing excess spectrum to the government. As bidding for the new spectrum went beyond this maximum bid value, SmarTone-Vodafone chose instead to implement LTE on its existing spectrum.

The report went on to quote Douglas Li, CEO of SmarTone-Vodafone: "We will re-use part of our existing spectrum to implement LTE. This provides the greatest flexibility and the most efficient way to meet market demand for LTE as and when required, as well as maximising value for our shareholders and customers."

Full story here