- Taiwan's NCC (National Communications
Commission) approved the issuance of WiMAX operating licenses to Far EasTone
Telecom and Vmax Telecom on December 16, Taipei Times reported. It is reported
that the two WiMAX carriers will be able to receive the licenses in two weeks
and they are required to commence operations within six months following receipt
of the license. Both Far EasTone and Vmax have fulfilled the requirement of
reaching 70% population coverage in their respective service regions, a
stipulated condition for application of the operating license. Far EasTone's WiMAX
service license is for the southern part of Taiwan, while Vmax's is for the
northern part. Of the six Taiwanese WiMAX licensees, thus far Tatung InfoComm
has begun offering services in Penghu County and Kaohsiung City, while Global
Mobile, which is currently conducting pilot service in Hsinchu, has been awarded the operating license. Vee Telecom and FITEL, meanwhile, have not been able to obtain the operating license yet.
- Korea's Samsung Electronics and Russian WiMAX
carrier Yota have teamed up for the deployment of mobile WiMAX service in
Nicaragua, The Korea Times reported on December 17. Trial service began in the
capital city Managua on December 17, merely three months after the two
companies started collaborating on the construction of WiMAX infrastructure using Samsung equipment. Samsung and Yota expect to commence commercial
services in Managua and three other major Nicaraguan cities by May 2010. Yota,
which holds a nationwide 2.5GHz spectrum license in Nicaragua, plans to provide
a wide range of devices for its mobile WiMAX service, including notebook PCs,
USB modems, routers, and Internet telephony devices. Samsung and Yota are
expected to expand their WiMAX partnership in Latin America and CIS (Commonwealth
of Independent States) countries.