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Broadband Access
WiMax Ruffles DSL Feathers in Macedonia
Local ISP Offers Low-Cost Broadband Wireless Service
by Iain Morris
The launch of a pre-WiMAX service in Macedonia has driven
the cost of broadband connectivity down by around 50 percent
in a period of just nine months.
That was the assertion of Paul Budgen, the sales director for
EMEA with Motorola, speaking at the Broadband World Forum
in Paris today. Working with Macedonian ISP On.net, the
vendor has rolled out a country-wide network based on its
MOTOwi4 Canopy wireless broadband platform. The ISP is
now providing a 512 Kbps connection at a cost of around €12
per-month.
The incumbent, Macedonia Telecom, has been forced to lower
the price of its DSL product in response, says Budgen, but he
claims On.net’s service maintains other advantages over the
fixed-line alternative.
“Macedonia Telecom is using DSL to provide broadband
connectivity, but I believe that they can only do it in bigger
towns at the moment,” he says. “Our product has made it
easier for people in rural locations to get access to the
internet as well.”
Although he concedes that the subscriber devices – a radio
unit mounted on the roof of a building – are more expensive than
conventional DSL, he believes the overall expense of Canopy
is far less than that of an alternative approach based on
rolling out new fixed-line infrastructure or even local loop
unbundling. “It can also be rolled out much quicker than a
wired network,” he says.
Budgen claims advantages over other wireless solutions as
well. “It’s working in unlicensed spectrum and very immune to
interference,” he says. Other country-wide deployments, such
as one in the Philippines, have already proven the
effectiveness of Canopy, says Budgen.
Funding for the network was actually provided as part of a
charitable initiative by the Chinese government and USAID,
which responded to the Macedonian government’s plea for
donors following the conclusion of the civil war in former
Yugoslavia.
The principal objective of the government was to make
Internet access available free of charge to schools and
universities throughout Macedonia. On.net now connects more
than 500 schools worldwide at no cost to the establishments,
although the business model could change slightly in future
months.
“I believe fees will be introduced [for schools and
universities], but they will be very low fees,” says
Budgen. “The idea is that the commercial part of the business
continues to subsidize that.”
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