Australia Leads the World in Mobile WiMAX
Unwired customers can already 'roam' between the company's networks in Sydney and Melbourne, while in the second half of 2006, Unwired and AUSTAR broadband customers will be able to roam across all three.
"We believe this will be a world first -- no other carrier in the world is yet able to offer roaming across another company's pre-WiMAX wireless broadband network. It shows that Australia is leading the way with the deployment of this global standard, and with the spectrum settings in Australia so conducive to WiMAX deployment, both companies see wireless as a viable alternative to the more traditional ADSL and cable broadband services," said Navini CEO Roger Dorf.
Unwired's and AUSTAR's networks combined currently cover more than 4 million Australians. However, the two companies own spectrum licences covering 90 per cent of the population, or 18 million Australians, following spectrum auctions in 2000 where the Australian Government licensed spectrum in the WiMAX designated 2.3 and 3.5GHz bands.
"Australia is in the unique position of having very large amounts of capacity in these two WiMAX designated bands with no restraints on the type of technology that can be deployed. In many ways we are the envy of carriers in other countries. Unwired, for example, has 190MHz in Sydney and 200MHz in Melbourne across the 2.3 and 3.5GHz ranges," said Unwired CEO, David Spence.
Unwired, which launched its Sydney network in August 2004 and then Melbourne in April 2006, currently has more than 50,000 customers. AUSTAR's launch into Wagga Wagga was the first step in its plans to cover 750,000 homes in 25 regional markets by the end of 2007.
John Porter, CEO of Austar, said, "Wireless broadband technology is perfectly suited for the regional and rural areas of Australia. Firstly, the purchase and installation process is faster, simpler and cheaper than other solutions such as ADSL. And perhaps most importantly, non-line-of-sight (NLOS) capability means that we can provide coverage despite the challenges of topography and the limited footprint of wireline networks."
"Navini is excited and proud to be working with leading companies like Unwired Australia and AUSTAR," Said Roger Dorf, president and CEO, Navini Networks. "Providing the ability to roam across the cities and regions is critical to the successful delivery of personal broadband and only Navini, with our Smart WiMAX(TM) solution, has been able to offer this in commercial deployments."
Navini has the most pre-802.16e mobile WiMAX experience in the world, including providing solutions in over 30 countries, which has led to numerous pre-standard deployments.