Malaysia's government plans to take back the 2.5 gigahertz (GHz) and 3.5 GHz broadband spectrum assigned to telecommunications firms to reduce the number of players, Communications Minister Lim Keng Yaik said on Monday.
The 2.5 GHz and 3.5 GHz band frequencies allow advanced Internet services such as wireless broadband WiMAX connections. Malaysia earlier this year awarded four WiMAX licences on the 2.3 GHz spectrum to Bizsurf, 50 percent-owned by YTL E-Solutions; MIB Comm, a unit of Green Packet Bhd; Redtone International and unlisted Asiaspace Dotcom.
"Now that we have rolled out 2.3 GHz with spectrum assigned to these WiMAX players, it's only logical that the 3.5 GHz and 2.5 GHz assignment be taken back," Lim told reporters.
Lim was also disappointed over the lack of customers, with some companies yet to even roll out their services. "Many of them after 3 years have not even rolled out at all. I'm not going to have 9 or 10 WiMAX licence holders. If you got too many players, they will go out and kill each other."
Among the companies with the 2.5 GHz and 3.5 GHz spectrum are state-controlled Telekom Malaysia, TIME dotCom and Malaysia's biggest mobile phone operator, Maxis Communications.
Lim said these firms would be given up to five years to wind up their services. Telekom, which lost out on a licence to run WiMAX services on the 2.3 GHz spectrum, has said it planned to launch WiMAX services on the 2.5 GHz spectrum it uses for mobile telephony. DiGi, the smallest of Malaysia's three mobile phone companies, announced last week it would explore the sharing of TIME dotCom's 2.5 GHz spectrum as part of their tie-up agreement.
WiMAX can blanket entire cities with high-speed wireless connections and is a longer-range version of the popular WiFi technology. It is cheaper to set up and run than the high-speed 3G connection for mobile phones.
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