Malaysia to take back some WiMAX licenses

Malaysia to take back some WiMAX licenses

The Malaysian government will withdraw some licenses given to firms to offer high-speed Internet services using WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) technology as the market is too crowded, local media reported on Tuesday.

The licenss, for 2.5 gigahertz (GHz) and 3.5 GHz spectrums, will be taken back over a five-year period.

"There are too many WiMAX players. When you have too many players, they will kill each other," Energy, Water and Communications Minister Lim Keng Yaik said after launching the Multimedia University International Symposium on Information and Communications Technologies 2007 in Petaling Jaya here on Monday.

Earlier this year, the government gave licenses to four companies to operate the 2.3 GHz airwave.

Eight companies have licenses to use WiMAX-related equipment while four firms won the permit to use the 2.5 GHz and 3.5 GHz airwaves, Lim said, quoting by Tuesday's the New Straits Times.

"Majority of them, after two to three years (of obtaining the assignment) don't have more than 10 customers and some don't even have any customers," the New Straits Times quoted Lim as saying.

He said he would speak to Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission chairman Halim Shafie this week on the matter.

"Those with no customers or insignificant customers will be immediately withdrawn while the ones with a significant customer base will be given notice," he said.

WiMAX, the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a telecommunications technology aimed at providing wireless data over long distances in a variety of ways, from point-to-point links to full mobile cellular type access.

WiMAX allows a user, for example, to browse the Internet on a laptop computer without physically connecting the laptop to a router, hub or switch via an Ethernet cable.