The WiMax 802.16 wireless broadband standard has enormous potential for reducing the cost of communications, particularly in Africa and other developing areas, but worldwide implementations are being delayed because of a lack of WiMax certified products.
That`s according to RapidCloud, the Johannesburg-based African distributor of WiMax-compliant equipment from Redline Communications in Canada.
"Internationally, WiMax is being delayed because interoperability testing has not yet been completed by Redline, Aperto Networks, Airspan, Siemens, and other top makers of fixed wireless broadband equipment," says Arnoud de Nooy, RapidCloud CEO.
Malcolm Clark, RapidCloud MD, adds: "Product is available, but equipment makers have to demonstrate interoperability with at least two other product sets to be awarded WiMax certification."
De Nooy and Clark are confident Redline will achieve certification before the end of the year, but say local implementations of WiMax could be further delayed because the South African communications authority, the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA), has yet to allocate frequencies to organisations for WiMax use.
"Until ICASA makes a decision on how to divide up and allocate the frequencies in the initial 3.5MHz band, none of the organisations that have applied for WiMax licences will be able to make services available," says De Nooy.
Clark adds that the challenge will be deciding which organisations should be granted WiMax access because although it would be practical only for three major carriers to use the 3.5MHz band, at least six have applied for licences.
Clark says that while RapidCloud has conducted a number of trials throughout Africa, unless ICASA makes a decision soon, countries like Nigeria, Zambia, Mozambique and even Zimbabwe may beat SA to WiMax implementation once equipment makers achieve certification for their product sets.
"WiMax will be an important step forward for SA because it provides a standard that guarantees connectivity, unlike the other proprietary wireless broadband services that have already entered the local market," says De Nooy.
Although conceding that it will not be an easy decision to allocate WiMax frequencies because of the limited bandwidth that the first WiMax equipment will be able to address, De Nooy says ICASA should expedite the process to ensure SA does not fall behind the rest of Africa.
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