The beginnings of WiMAX in Thailand:
Phuket trial begins
By Jon Fernquest |
Today's Bangkok Post business section has an article on the debut of WiMAX broadband access in Thailand.
United Information Highway (UIH), a new joint venture, is planning to set up Thailand's first WiMAX network in Phuket.
Phuket was chosen because the island does not yet have a full telecommunications infrastructure:
"Also, it has high potential user demand from foreign travellers with fewer service providers. Target customers in the first stage would be corporate users, hotels and real estate companies.The company planned to expand WiMAX into high-density population areas in Bangkok and metropolitan areas in the second stage."
Yesterday, a WiMAX trial began on Phuket island:
"UIH...linked up with Intel and Motorola on Friday to introduce a WiMAX trial in Phuket province, with initial downlink speeds of 10 megabits per second and uplink speeds of three megabits per second... Thailand's first WiMAX trial was conducted by UIH on Friday from a boat docked near Phuket Beach where the signal was sent to Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort, some 1.5 km away."
The WiMAX Technology
WiMAX has the coverage of a mobile phone. Like a mobile phone WiMAX allows you to connect to the internet anywhere.
To be exact, WiMAX can "provide broadband wireless access within a radius of up to 50 kilometres for fixed stations, and 5-15 km for mobile stations."
(See photo on right of mobile phone "base station" or "fixed station," the "mobile station" if the mobile phone itself)
WiMAX will make life easier for people whose work life and social life revolves around computers.
Most people are already familiar with wireless modems which use Wi-Fi.
Wi-Fi is often confused with WiMAX. Here are the differences:
- WiMAX is a long-range system covering many kilometers that usually uses licensed spectrum to deliver a connection to the Internet from an ISP to an end user.Mobile access is similar to a mobile phone, fixed access comes from a fixed location such as the home or workplace.
- Wi-Fi is a shorter range system, at most hundreds of meters, that uses unlicensed spectrum to provide access to a network typically covering only the network operator's own property, Wi-Fi is used to access the user's own network as well a as the internet, WiMAX is similar to a mobile phone, Wi-Fi is similar to a cordless phone used around the house (Source: Wikipedia on WiMAX)
Thailand's internet penetration rate, at 15%, ranks lower than neighboring Malaysia's at 60%.
WiMAX may eventually increase Thailand's internet penetration rate by making broadband more widely available in rural areas that suffer from a shortage of fixed line telephones:
"Many companies are closely examining WiMAX for "last mile" connectivity at high data rates. The resulting competition may bring lower pricing for both home and business customers or bring broadband access to places where it has been economically unavailable" (Source: Wikipedia on WiMAX broadband access)
The Phuket Wimax Project
Permanent regulatory approval of the Phuket WiMAX network awaits the formation of a telecommunications regulator under Thailand's new constitution:
"UIH received a three-month WiMAX trial licence from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) in early 2007. However, the NTC does not intend to grant licences for WiMAX services until the formation of its regulatory successor, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC)."
UIH is a 75:25 joint venture between Benchachinda Holding Co and CAT Telecom.
UIH's revenue and business is set to expand with the expansion of broadband:
"UIH, under its Bee Net brand, now has 1,000 corporate customers with 10,000 broadband base stations.Based on research by Motorola, the number of broadband users worldwide is projected to surge to 416 million in 2010, up from 218 million in 2006.
WiMAX-equipped notebooks have been forecast to rise to 194 million units in 2011, up from 131 million in 2008 and 106 million in 2007.
Mr Vichai said UIH expects revenue of 3.5 billion baht this year, up from three billion last year.
Net profit was also expected to increase by about 10% from 300 million baht last year. "We expect broadband service to generate 10% of total revenue this year, with the remaining 90% from leased line network services."
He added UIH was preparing to tap into multimedia content for broadband services."
(Source: Bangkok Post, business section, 25-02-08, Srisamorn Phoosuphanusorn, page B1, temp-link)
Example sentences:
wireless - communication without wires, sending messages over a distance with radio signals
WiMAX - a new wireless technology for providing internet connections (See Wikipedia on WiMAX and list of WiMAX implementations)
the debut of - the start of, the introduction of a new product or service for the first time
coverage - the area or part of town that can connect to the wireless service
broadband access - high-speed data transmission used for high-speed Internet access, fast enough to support applications such as streaming video (See glossary)
within a radius of X kilometers - inside of a circle with distance from center to edge equal to X kilometers
base stations - the radio transmitter and receiver that connects mobile telephones in an area with a company's wireless network, most countries require several hundred base stations to give full coverage for mobile phone customers
fixed stations - base stations
mobile stations - the technical word for "mobile phone" (See Wikipedia)
X revolves around Y - Y is the main focus of X (the mother's life revolves around her child, for example)
wireless modems - the wireless internect connection you typically get nowadays in your home, apartment, or work
licensed spectrum - radio frequencies that the government must give permission to use
unlicensed spectrum - radio frequencies that anyone can use without getting permission
ISP - an Internet Service Provider, a company that provides access to the internet (See Wikipedia)
an end user - the person using the internet, the person at the "end" of the network
penetration - percentage of a group of people that do something
market penetration - percentage of the customers in a market that buy your product
internet penetration - percentage of people in a group that use the internet
fixed line telephones - traditional telephones in a business or a home, with telephone poles and wires
"last mile" connectivity - the last part of the old style telephone network that connects homes by wire up to the larger national telephone network (this "last mile" is expensive because it uses wires, the national long-distance network uses wireless)
high data rates - sends large amounts of data quickly
telecommunications infrastructure - all the facilities and equipment necessary to keep a telephone network operating (See Wikipedia)
a trial - a test
downlink - the one-way connection going from the network to the user's mobile phone or computer (a two-way connection generally contains both an uplink and downlink connection, sometimes one direction is faster, usually the downlink; See glossary)
uplink - the one-way connection going from a user's mobile phone or computer (See glossary)
projected to X - people believe that X will happen in the future
surge to Y - increase suddenly and quickly to Y
tap into Y - make use of Y to get something that you want from it
multimedia content - the interactive combined use of several media (audio, still images, video, graphics, text)
