Tellumat makes a bid for promising WIMAX market

Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT

Microwave semiconductor & tube suppliers

Radio system suppliers

RF module & subsystem suppliers

Telephony IC suppliers

Wireless system IC/module suppliers

printer friendly version

21 February 2007 Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT

Local telecommunications equipment manufacturer Tellumat has secured a partnership with Telsima Corporation to distribute its WIMAX equipment in southern Africa.

WIMAX provides wireless broadband access and is especially suitable for bringing broadband Internet and other services to communities without existing landline infrastructure, or where demand for copper-based ADSL broadband services outstrips supply.

Tellumat's executive for mobile and radio communications, Geoff Carey, says "Telsima is attractively priced compared to others in the market and has unique mobility features that make it very suitable for the African market."

Carey says WIMAX may be easier to deploy in Africa than in industrialised nations. "Even though the part of the radio spectrum it uses is licensed," he says. "In Europe and the US it is a big challenge to clear sufficient spectrum for WIMAX allocation because of high demand and since the spectrum was allocated to other technologies in the past. In South Africa and the rest of Africa there is generally spectrum available in the WiMAX frequency bands for broadband wireless access, making deployment of WiMAX more feasible and the technology less complicated to implement."

So far ICASA has granted licences for commercial WIMAX services to Telkom, Neotel, Sentech and iBurst as well the holders of Under-Serviced Area Licences (USALs). Certain of the USALs are already planning and deploying WiMAX for broadband, VoIP and other telecommunications services in their particular areas.

Carey says WIMAX has several advantages over ADSL, even in urban areas. "Copper landline is the traditional way of delivering ADSL broadband services. The waiting list for ADSL at the moment is much longer than most people are prepared to wait and the service is only available within about 5 kilometres of the nearest exchange or concentrator.

On the other hand wireless access using WIMAX delivers broadband connectivity to users located up to 30 kilometres from a base station. Therefore WIMAX can complement the fixed-line infrastructure beyond the reach of existing copper or where the copper infrastructure is unavailable (such as the rural and under serviced areas targeted by the USALs). Wireless access allows for rapid and cost-effective implementation of broadband services in these areas."

For more information contact Geoff Carey, Tellumat, +27 (0)11 695 7881, gcarey@tellumat.com

Share this article:

Categories

Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT

Tellumat makes a bid for promising WIMAX market

Further reading:

Publications by Technews