Qtel Nears Mesh Partner Decision, Honduras Rural Pilot"
US wireless solutions provider Qtel expects to decide by the end of this quarter on a vendor partner with which it will offer wireless mesh broadband technology platforms in Latin America, Qtel CEO John Puente told BNamericas.
The selection process is at an advanced stage and Qtel is piloting one vendor over the wireless broadband backbone it operates in Costa Rica, Puente said, adding that the goal is to deploy mesh networks in hotels, resorts and condominiums under the product name ABA Mesh.
Qtel has evolved from being a pure wireless broadband firm to become a business with multiple offerings mainly as a result of its merger with broadband applications firm Tekvoice. The merger should be completed by the end of August, Puente said, but the fusion has already enabled Qtel to add a security solution, VoIP and now an IP PBX offering to its portfolio.
Wireless mesh shares internet connections from node to node instead of relying on a cable to connect each node to the head office. This gives the network a greater coverage area and incorporates cheaper infrastructure compared to other wireless broadband technologies such as Wi-Fi and WLL.
The Costa Rica network covers the country's capital as well as secondary and tertiary cities and is directed mainly at government and large corporate clients. Qtel already has telco partners in Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Peru, Mexico, El Salvador and Honduras for whom it will also provide turnkey wireless broadband networks. In some of those countries the telco partner is more interested in offering residential services.
Qtel's equipment suppliers for the Costa Rica network were Motorola, which provided its Canopy system, and Redline. The first corporate client signed up in January and Puente expects Qtel to end 2006, its first year of operations, with revenues of US$250,000.
WITEL PROJECT
In June of this year two ex-presidents of Honduras, Ricardo Maduro and Rafael Callejas, joined Qtel and together with regional business consultancy AMLA Consulting initiated a project to provide wireless broadband to rural areas of Central America, starting with Honduras.
The project is called Witel, and Puente expects it to become part of Qtel's overall business by end-2007.
Qtel is in talks with two companies as potential partners for launching the pilot in Honduras. The pilot would target the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa, plus one remote village, later expanding to six other cities. It should take five to six months to expand the network to tertiary cities, Puente added.
The whole project, for six or seven countries, should cost US$28mn-30mn, financed mainly by Qtel and AMLA with help from the countries' universal access funds. However, "rather than government funding, what we need [most] from them is licensing and concessions," Puente said.
BNAmericas.com"
Posted to the site on 9th August 2006