Malaysia expects to roll out WiMAX, a high-speed wireless telecoms service, by the middle of next year, delaying from an earlier target of end-2007, Communications Minister Lim Keng Yaik said on July 27.
The government also wants the country's four WiMAX licence holders to share their infrastructure, he told reporters at a product launch. "The operators should own the infrastructure through a consortium," Lim said.
In March, the government awarded the much-coveted WiMAX licences to YTL E-Solutions's unit Bizsurf, Green Packet Bhd's unit MIB Comm, telecoms service provider Redtone International and infrastructure maker Asiaspace Dotcom.
Industry regulator Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission had expected the winners to start rolling out the service by the end of 2007. Malaysia is scrambling to boost Internet transfer speeds and catch up with its more technology-savvy Asian neighbours.
WiMAX - wireless interoperability for microwave access - allows super high-speed Internet access and file downloads from laptops, phones or other mobile devices over greater distances than previous technologies.
It can blanket entire cities with wireless connections and is cheaper to set up and run than the high-speed 3G connection for mobile phones.
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