Orbitel Plans for WiMax Services to Represent 10% of Revs

Colombian long distance operator Orbitel aims for its new offering of WiMax services to represent 10% of total revenues with 50,000 users one year after fully launching the service, company's IT VP Sergio Restrepo told BNamericas.

To launch a WiMax offering, Orbitel selected German equipment supplier Siemens to deploy a network in Cali based on Siemens WayMAX@vantage solution.

Orbitel plans to deploy a network in 12 other major cities this year to reach all Colombian capitals by 2007, according to Restrepo.

Through this network, Orbitel plans to provide broadband access with transference rates of up to 2Mbps. The network also supports data-intensive services such as high-quality video streaming to laptops.

"Through WiMax we offer users the possibility to move freely in any part of the area the network is covering. In addition to internet connectivity, we will provide corporate internet services and the termination for national and international VPNs over our MPLS network to provide different quality of services," Restrepo said.

The company has an investment plan of US$10mn for the first year of the project, particularly earmarked to expand access.

Orbitel has also offered IP telephony services since last year and plans to launch a local telephony unit in the near future.

"But our main focus this year will be on WiMax and reaching the largest cities," Restrepo said.

To operate the service, Orbitel is using one of the three national WiMax licenses awarded by the government. An auction is currently underway for more WiMax spectrum, which includes two blocks of spectrum in each of the country's 32 departments.

BNAmericas.com"

Posted to the site on 20th July 2006