Hot on the heels of this week’s WiMAX launches by Packet One Networks (P1) and REDtone, another player has revealed its plans to enter the market. Bizsurf executive director Amarjit Singh Chhina has announced that the operator will launch its WiMAX services by the end of this month to meet the regulator’s deadline, although no specific launch date has been revealed. Bizsurf entered into a strategic agreement in June 2008 with Xohm, Sprint Nextel’s WiMAX businesss, for assistance in the rollout of services. Asiaspace, the fourth and final operator to receive a WiMAX licence in March 2007 announced earlier this week it would launch on 30 August.
All four WiMAX licence holders must launch services by the end of August 2008 as a term of the licences they received, with a further condition stipulating that they must reach at least 25% population coverage by the end of the year. All licence holders will also need to cover at least 40% of the population in areas they are licensed in within three years; P1, Bizsurf and Asiaspace were granted nationwide concessions, while REDtone is confined to the states of Sabah and Sarawak.