Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia ,Vietnam to Benefit from Asian Broadband Campaign
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 22, 2005 - Aiming to accelerate
WiMAX wireless broadband deployment in Southeast Asian countries, Intel
Corporation today announced the Asian Broadband Campaign, an effort
that will provide broadband wireless consulting and expertise along
with silicon and technical services.
Intel will work with governments, telecommunications regulators,
education, health and agriculture public sector agencies and carriers,
True Corporation in Thailand and Telekom Malaysia among them, to help
them prepare for and conduct WiMAX trials. The trials will test
connectivity among key public and private sector groups. Once broadly
deployed, the countries hope the technology will help them meet the
United Nations Millennium Development goals to eradicate poverty and
hunger, expand primary education, promote gender equality, reduce child
mortality, combat diseases, ensure environmental sustainability and
develop a global partnership for development by 2015.
"The developing countries of Southeast Asia have committed to the
United Nations that they will work to meet these objectives," said Sean Maloney,
executive vice president of Intel's Mobility Group. "Intel believes
that technology, and specifically WIMAX, can be one of the foundations
to help these countries reach these goals. Standards-based wireless
broadband connectivity can help enable technologies that can facilitate
better education, healthcare, agricultural productivity and incomes
while improving small businesses and eGovernment access and
technologies that support entire families."
As part of Intel's Digital ASEAN (d-ASEAN) vision of an integrated
region of connected villages, provinces, cities and countries, Intel is
helping to begin WiMAX trials in Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines
by the end of 2005. Trials in Indonesia and Vietnam are expected to
take place in 2006.
Since late 2004, Intel has consulted with government agencies and
service providers on issues including spectrum policy, rural and
suburban sustainability modeling, and planning trial deployment
strategies.
In Thailand, WiMAX trials are being conducted
in the communities of Khorat, Chiang Mai and Roi Et to test services
for rural and suburban healthcare, education, SMB incubation,
agriculture supply chain integration and other consumer services such
as Voice over IP. The trials will help assess technical and commercial
viability models using different backhaul and last-mile WiMAX
architecture and will be reviewed by international aid organizations as
a possible blueprint to use across the ASEAN countries.
A WiMAX trial is currently underway in Malaysia's government
administrative hub, Putrajaya. In Kepala Batas, communities of medical
practitioners, students and teachers at different remote locations
recently tested the uses of WiMAX in the health and education sectors.
With these trials the Malaysian government hopes to promote its digital
vision to make wireless broadband technologies such as WiMAX more
accessible and affordable to more citizens. The ongoing WiMAX trial is
expected to help accelerate the rate of PC and Internet adoption and
lay the foundation for Malaysia's d-ASEAN vision.
In the Philippines, the government has a goal to increase the use of
PC technology in government offices and agencies and establish a
nationwide digital infrastructure. They expect to see the deployment of
wireless broadband technologies including WiMAX across key sectors of
the country before the end of 2005.
News Source: Intel Press Release
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