Eleven operators in six Arab countries have launched commercial WiMAX service, according to a report.

By the 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, said the “WiMAX in the Arab World: Current status and regulations” report released by the Arab Advisors Group.

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, the report said.

According to the WiMAX forum, WiMAX provides coverage economically and combines both Line of Sight (LOS) and Non Line of Sight (NLOS) coverage. With Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) technology, WiMAX has been optimised to provide NLOS coverage (up to 15 Km around the base station) and long-range transmission up to 50 km 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.

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.

“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,” Jawad J Abbassi, founder and general manager of Arab Advisors Group noted in the report. 

The report can be purchased from the Arab Advisors Group for $950. More information on the report is available at www.arabadvisors.com– TradeArabia News Service