YTL Comms’ WiMAX launch may not be on time

KUALA LUMPUR: YTL Communications Bhd’s (YTL Comms) November commercial launch date for its WiMAX service may not be met if it does not get the necessary network interconnection with the other four cellular players on time.
The interconnection agreements with the four cellular companies have been signed. A two-month period is needed for the execution.
“The only thing that could stop us from doing the November launch is the interconnection,’’ said YTL Comms executive director Datuk Yeoh Seok Hong.
Interconnection is vital since YTL Comms will offer data and voice connectivity, and the cellular prefix allotted to YTL Comms is 018. If all goes as planned, about 65% of the population in the country will be covered by YTL Comms’ WiMAX network at the point of the commercial launch.
YTL Comms was supposed to launch the service in July but now the dateline has been pushed to November. But YTL Comms CEO Wing K. Lee (pic) claims that the July dateline was only for a soft launch and not a commercial launch and the latter will be in November.
“We have been testing our network for a while now and we are very much on track on our network built-up,’’ Lee told StarBiz recently.
Sadly, the service will not be available in east Malaysia for the licence that YTL Comms has is for Peninsular Malaysia and that does not allow it to roll out services in Sabah and Sarawak as well.
But YTL Comms is hoping it would land itself with the extension into east Malaysia. It is still holding talks with the regulator on the matter.
“It is part of the country and it needs to have good connectivity (as well),’’ Lee added.
He would not talk on pricing plans and on the speed of transmission, he would merely say “it will be five times better than 3G and it will come in multiple of megabits.’’
Converged services is what YTL Comms is working towards launching. That means you can have voice, video, data – all in one offering. The devices are being tested and by the time the service is available, the devices will be offered in the market place.
Whether or not the interconnection comes on time, YTL Comms would go ahead with its plans with an educational programme of what WiMAX can do and what to expect at the launch date.
YTL Comms is investing RM2.5bil to bring converged services to the market place. It is working with several partners such as Cisco, Samsung, Clearwire, CGT Semiconductors to bring the service. It also has a tie-up with Telekom Malaysia Bhd and Fiberail for backhaul operations.
(By B.K. Sidhu)
(Published in The Star on August 24, 2010)