Fixed Wireless Broadband

NBN looks for more wireless spectrum

NBN Co is on the hunt for more wireless spectrum and is currently in talks with the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to acquire unallocated 2.2 GHz blocks.

The national carrier is deploying fixed wireless internet services for 4 percent of Australia’s population where the NBN or satellite does not reach. It recently picked up parcels of 2.3 and 3.4 gigahertz spectrum from subscription TV company Austar in a deal worth A$120 million.

Embattled NBN Co CEO Mike Quigley told a parliamentary inquiry yesterday that wireless will be rolled out before the fibre network.

Quigley indicated that NBN Co is keen on more spectrum in Western Australia. He said that the fixed-wireless component of the NBN would begin roll out in early 2012, but would take a number of years to complete, mostly due to fibre backhaul being installed to NBN points of interconnect, which are tied to the completion of an A$11 billion deal with Telstra.

Fronting the inquiry, Quigley also tried to damp down the snowballing Alcatel-Lucent bribery scandal, in which the company paid backhanders in various South American countries on the basis of fake invoices.

The parliamentary inquiry questioned Quigley over his public admission on Friday his role at Alcatel Lucent during a bribery scandal affecting South America and Asia from 2001-2006.

"I clearly was advised by one of my previous colleagues in North America, who's currently still with Alcatel-Lucent, to check for me whether Costa Rica was within my area of operation and control. On the basis of that advice I stated that it was not,” he explained.

Adding that this “was an error for which I unreservedly apologise." Federal opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull said that government and Communications Minister Stephen Conroy should have been more aware of Quigley's role with Alcatel-Lucent.

"He's clearly made a number of mistaken or false statements which he has now corrected and apologised for. There's no effort to impugn his integrity but as representatives of the people whose taxes are paying for this NBN, we are entitled to ask questions and try to get to the facts," Turbull said.

Quigley told the inquiry that he didn’t believe it was his job to start defending Alcatel-Lucent in light of the bribery investigation.

True pushes fixed and wireless broadband | Telecom Asia

Thailand is missing out on the mobile broadband boom because the lack of any clear authority by the regulator to set 3G auctions has created a gap in the market. 

"Thailand is missing out in enjoying the advantage of 3G services," said True group CFO Noppadol Dej-Udom.

He noted that the country has only about seven million fixed lines and less than three million of those can handle broadband. So 17 million of the country's 20 million households don't have access to broadband. "This is very bad for the country. The quickest and easiest way to introduce broadband in those areas is through 3G," he said.

Its recent acquisition of Hutchison Thailand gives True 800,000 subscribers, but more importantly 10 MHz of spectrum in the 850-MHz band. So with its existing 5 MHz in the same band it will have 15 MHz. True will upgrade the frequency for 3G this year and has enabled CAT to stop losing money on the previously high interconnect charges from Hutch.

"This will give True first-mover advantage in the Thai market where people have been waiting not only for data service but for high-speed wireless data service," he said.

The new arrangement, Noppadol said, is structured according to the new telecom law and can be sustained in the future. "We no longer have a concession type of arrangement for the Hutch deal, but of course True Move, AIS and Dtac are still imprisoned in that concession arrangement."

Casting a shadow on the deal, Dtac last month filed a suit seeking a judicial review of the deal it said was anti-competitive. 

To raise ARPU on broadband services True started trials at the end of last year of Docsis 3 cable-modem technology, which offers speeds of up to 400 Mbps per home. True launched the service with a minimum speed of 10 Mbps and a maximum speed of 100 Mbps in March. Noppadol said it can now compete head-to-head with DSL providers that offer a maximum speed of 8 Mbps.

The company added 122,000 broadband users last year and had just over 800,000 subs at the end of 2010. Less than 20% of users are outside the Bangkok metropolitan area, but Noppadol said that will change this year with the launch of nationwide coverage with Docsis 3. By the end of the year it aims to cover 26 cities and will invest some 9.5 billion baht ($312 million) over the next three years.

He explained that the primary use of hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) networks is for pay TV, which is what True plans to offer in addition to broadband service. The HFC network gives it the ability to offer almost an unlimited number of channels, including high-def offerings.

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