By end of March 2009, WiMAX was commercially available in Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia while several operators in many Arab countries have started testing the service.
WiMAX stands for World Interoperability for Microwave Access. WiMAX/IEEE 802.16 is a global standard-based technology for Broadband Wireless Access. WiMAX vendors state that WiMAX systems are able to cover a large geographical area, up to 50 km and to deliver significant bandwidth to end-users at up to 72 Mbps. According to the WiMAX forum, WiMAX provides coverage economically and combines both Line of Sight (LOS) and None Line of Sight (NLOS) coverage. With Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) technology, WiMAX has been optimized to provide NLOS coverage (up to 15 Km around the base station) and long-range transmission up to 50Km in Line of Sight conditions. WiMAX technology can be deployed as a Point Multi-Point in last mile connection and as part of the backhaul to the PSTN and Internet access points.
The first commercial deployment of WiMAX in the Arab World was in Algeria. Moreover, by end of February 2009, eight other service providers in five other countries in the MENA region offered WiMAX. The total number of commercially launched WiMAX operators increased to eleven by end of March 2009.
A new report, “WiMAX in the Arab World: Current status and regulations.” was released to the Arab Advisors Group’s Telecoms Strategic Research Service subscribers on February 19th, 2009.
This report can be purchased from the Arab Advisors Group for only US$ 950. The 39-page report, which has 28 detailed exhibits, investigates the availability of WiMAX regulations in 19 Arab countries, the frequencies used, entities that have tested WiMAX or pre-WiMAX services, and vendors for equipment. The report covers the following Arab countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, UAE, and Yemen.
Any investment in this report will count towards an annual Strategic Research Service subscription should the service be acquired within three months from purchasing the report.
An investment in the report can also count towards attending Arab Advisors’ 6th annual Media and Telecoms Convergence Conference on June 1 & 2 2009 at the Four Seasons in Amman. More information on the conference can be viewed on http://www.arabadvisors.com/Convergence/schedule.htm
Please contact the Arab Advisors Group to get a copy of the report’s Table of Contents.
“There are still no detailed regulations specific to WiMAX in some Arab countries. Still, a few have specified the type of license that needs to be obtained to provide WiMAX service. For example, in Algeria, the company should have a VoIP authorization and regulator has specified the 3.5 GHz band for WiMAX. In Jordan, that the company should have an individual license needed to use the frequency (a scarce resource) as well as win the spectrum auction for WiMAX.” Mr. Jawad J. Abbassi, founder and general manager of Arab Advisors Group noted in the report.
The Arab Advisors Group’s team of analysts in the region has already produced over close to 1,450 reports on the Arab World’s communications and media markets. The reports can be purchased individually or received through an annual subscription to Arab Advisors Group’s (www.arabadvisors.com) Strategic Research Services (Media and Telecom).
To date, Arab Advisors Group has served over 535 global and regional companies by providing reliable research analysis and forecasts of Arab communications markets to these clients. Some of our clients can be viewed on http://www.arabadvisors.com/clients.htm
