3 posts tagged “mastel”

Visit of Dr. Ferrie Hu of the Forum. He's the business development director for Asia. He's here to promote WiMAX in Indonesia. This is a closed event, for invitee only. Arranged by Indonesian Mastel. And sponsored by one of the WiMAX vendor... :-)

This is a perfect time to do it, in my opinion, because:

1. Public receives a lot of wrong, misleading, over-promising message about WiMAX. Overly hyped, when reality strikes, people will be dissappointed. Thus. this good technology might die before it is launched as the result.
2. Government is seriously thinking of releasing a WiMAX license by 2008. There are a lot of heavy lobbying currently happening over there, and sadly, giving a wrong information. So it is important that they receives a balanced information.
3. What are the current gov't concern BTW? Namely: the best frequency allocation (2.3? 2.5? 3.3? 3.5?), economics of WiMAX, contribution of local manufacturing/industry in global value chain, and digital divide.
   
4. As well with operators, who are considering WiMAX. Especially the new comers. Understand WiMAX as a whole, not clouded by the hype.

Actually, the day before, they visited the regulatory body. And like I said, the mastermind of this event is one aggressive WiMAX vendor. A smart move actually: they gain the popularity as the one who brings the credible expert to Indonesia and as the one who's interest is to grow the industry. Not only their business. That's business development.

To be updated: Dr. Hu's message.

This is a tough, yet interesting, seminar. The official title is: "Post & Telecommunication: Engine for Growth and Pillars of Civilization." There are four speakers, each tried to look at the macro factors of post and telco industry. How these two industries altered and be altered by culture, economics, civilization; and affect each other. Organized by Indonesian Mastel.

I took a couple of notes:

1. The dying post industry: revitalize, reposition, re-everything
2. There's an opportunity to transformation post office into P.O.S.T (Point of Services & Transaction)
   
3. Innovation in telecommunication services can create unthinkable changes in cultural & social behavior (there are a number of examples, but they are very Indonesian in context; so I'll describe it later on)
4. Increasingly concerning is the dominance of pop culture in the current society; information technology helps accelerate the pace and adoption. And on the other hand technology can assist in countering the influence by spreading the desired value.
   

Well, part of fun is the intellectual exercise. Listening to experts from outside of my field: there are three social scientists, one economist, one anthropologist, one archaeologist. They are very credible, but I need really to tune my brain wave in order to understand and make sense of what they are saying... :-)

My company is a regular sponsor to Indonesian MASTEL. Just recently, we also take part on their WiMAX training. (I sent a trainer to the event). It is also our interest to see this upcoming technology materialize in Indonesia and grow the telco/ICT industry in general.

Generally, our WiMAX situation in Indonesia are as follows:

1. It is over-hyped and mis-communicated :-)
2. WiMAX licenses are not yet issued... and will be issued on an "unusual" frequency, 2.3 GHz
3. However, huge potential do exist

One by one, now.

Over-hyped, mis-communicated. The most common misconception was that WiMAX is able to "deliver broadband wireless at 30 Mb/s at the range of 50 km, non-line-of-sight." Errr.... well, the law of physics govern that the longer distance you go, the lower the bitrate is and vice versa.

Secondly, WiMAX will "kill 3G." Sort of... but 3G will not be dead easily and WiMAX will not live an easy life either. To really kill such a widely available mobile infrastructure definitely needs something huge as well (like Sprint WiMAX).

So our industry needs to communicate this well.

License & frequency. We are afraid that not enough equipment will be available at the 2.3 GHz frequency. If available, they might reach the required economics of scale to deliver the so called zero-cost CPE. But let's see how the game will play.

On the other hand, our government is also planning some strategic move here. So that explains the "odd" spectrum choice.

Huge potential. Broadband adoption is negligible in Indonesia. Here's some numbers:

• DSL & Cable subscribers are estimated 300k subs, they have been operating since 2001 -- out of 9 million phone subs
• HSDPA are (our guestimate) at 100k subs -- out of 70 million phone subs
• Internet is at 20 mil. users and 1.5 mil. subscribers -- out of 230 mil. population

How are we going to grow the numbers? Personally, I believe that by 2010 the internet subs should double, and the broadband subs should reach at 2 mil. Why not?

Will WiMAX help?

Cross your fingers... :-)