Motorola To Deploy Mobilink WiMAX In Pakistan
As announced in various press releases, Motorola continues its bet on WiMAX. Part of the financing of this initiative is by Morotorla. See previous coverage of WiMAX in Pakistan and here. This is an interesting and expected development which puts pressure on Wateen to execute on the hype it created.
Motorola Inc. said Wednesday it has reached an agreement with telecommunications company Mobilink GSM to create a wireless network in Pakistan.
Motorola will design and set up the system using WiMax, a technology that allows transmission of wireless data over long distances.
The network will cover major metropolitan areas in Pakistan including Lahore and Islamabad and will allow Mobilink to extend its cellular service to include high-speed broadband.
This is the second such system Motorola will create in Pakistan and its fourth in the Middle East and Africa region.
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After being a Mobilink cell user for about 7 years, and a GPRS user since they launched, this doesn’t sound too exciting.
I was probably one of the early applicants on their website, and have had 4 representatives call me in the last couple of months (they probably don’t have a CRM system hooked up with their website, as none of the marketers seemed to know I had been contacted before them - which leads to a waste of time (mine) and resources (their).
The reps, btw, sounded desperate to sell, and I got the impression (from their tone) that they didn’t really believe in their product.
Each time they mentioned their (outrageously expensive for a fixed installation) price of 3500Rs. for 128k/6500Rs. for 256k, I made it a point to ask them “So I can use a WiMAX enabled laptop to connect from anywhere, right?”, their responses ranged from “Not yet, but we are working on it and mobility should be available in the next few months or a couple of years” to “No, but you can take the wireless phone like device from your home to your office”
Uh!
So why would anyone want a fixed installation 128k connection for 3500 instead of an unlimited 1mbps DSL for a little bit more? Any ideas?
The only reason I was holding out for WiMAX instead of a DSL upgrade was mobility… there go my dreams of working from the park :-/
(This should have been a post on my blog rather than a comment on yours. Sorry.)
WiMAX Forum has certified Fixed system 802.16d uptil now and hopefully 2Q 2008 we will have 802.16e certified systems available in the market which supports mobility. Comsumers will get the price benefit when they will start
offering on Large scale.
Fixed system is expensive for consumers but attractive to corporate customers due to licensed band services.
Intel will also come up with low cost WiMax enabled Laptops to cater end consumer market which will eventually support exponential growth of 16e systems.
But biggest question is when they will launch this product. Motrolla also has a partnership with wateen and i am waiting for their launch from last one year but i think there is no sign of any early launch of their product too. I don’t know weather they just wanted to make an hype before launching their product and when they launch we will think OH! that is what they were talking about, i am happy with my connection!
[...] as Mobilink and Burraq Telecom are also working on their plans for a WiMAX offering. Motorola is working with these players too for supplying the required equipment. It is expected that in Pakistan, as [...]
Most of the telecom companies in Pakistan have started to move thier network to Wimax because it is a cheap and robust technology. PTA has given licence to Wateen Telecom to operate it’s services in Pakistan and is operational now other are testing thier system in order to have licence from PTA.
Pakistan is one of the fastestet growing country in the reagion and hence has received Telecom Award last year for fastest growth in Telecom sector. Regardless of the vendor they are still in testing phase (I belive) because they are still unable to maintain QoS(Quality of Service) of thier services PTA has not yet stated to enforce Wimax in Pakistan probably they will do it from next year.
can anyone plese let me know how many licenses are being issued for WIMAX?furthermore..is any one using WImax fixed or mobile?if they are, how is it exactly different from micronet’s wireless DSL connection?
Wateen WiMax has very poor signal profile even in metropolitan areas like Islamabad. They yet to prove themselves in this respect.