PHILIPPINES--Bridgewater Systems says over-the-air (OTA) WiMax provisioning not only offers mobile users more control, it also presents a cost-effective deployment for carriers.
The company said during a briefing Wednesday that OTA applications will allow Philippine operators to offer new usage and revenue models, such as on-demand and prepaid wireless broadband services to areas in the Philippines where access provision remains "challenging".
David Brooks, managing director for Bridgewater Asia-Pacific, disclosed that the Philippines' top-tier mobile carriers have been "in talks" with Bridgewater regarding OTA and business models that can be derived from the technology.
OTA-based WiMax services, according to Brooks, allow a customer to enter a retail store, buy a device, and immediately turn on the device to connect to the network via WiMax. This technology provides the customer with more control as it fully automates the delivery of services the user wants.
Brooks said: "A customer can specify the type of mobile access service. For instance, whether he or she selects a prepaid access service for an hour or for a day."
He added that this set-up can be cost-effective for the carrier as well, as it will eliminate the need for "intervention" from carriers, particularly customer service representatives or sales teams.
He said that while there are no concrete plans from local operators regarding investments and WiMax deployment, the carriers have expressed "keen interest" on OTA.
"Globe Telecom has just recently announced that it is investing a significant amount of investment for its WiMax rollout, but so far, we cannot disclose when these top-tier carriers will roll out commercial WiMax," he said, adding that carriers remain mum on WiMax plans.
According to Brooks, the Philippines is "ripe" for mobile WiMax, particularly for prepaid wireless broadband through OTA.
Cost remains a factor in the deployment of broadband, he said, noting that mobile WiMax "may be the solution" to allow more people in the Philippines, which is an archipelago, to afford broadband services.
WiMax is touted to extend and expand the reach of Wi-Fi significantly.
Broadband in the Philippines is mostly confined in large cities, and to date, popular broadband services are still delivered via a DSL (digital subscriber line) connection.
And while Wi-Fi is also available with many establishments offering both paid and free, access is limited to select locations.
Prepaid services are also immensely popular in the Philippines, with a majority of mobile users favoring prepaid call and SMS cards instead of subscribing to a regular service agreement with carriers.
Bridgewater said there are currently two large-scale deployments of WiMax, one of which is being implemented by U.S. carrier Sprint, and the other is spearheaded by Japan's KDDI.
Joel D. Pinaroc is a freelance IT writer based in the Philippines.
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NEED WIMAX PROVIDER
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Posted by anonymous on Monday, August 25 2008 10:02 AM