ONEMAX Launches World’s First WiMAX Rev-e Network in the 3.5 GHz Spectrum

By A. Méchaly, J.-C. Girma

The Dominican Republic is a country experiencing rapid growth. In 2006, the country of almost 9.4 million citizens expanded the economy by 10.7%, with solid growth (8%) expected to be posted by the end of 2007.

Nonetheless, the country has its development challenges. Parts of the country remain unserved by wireless phone providers, and a significant percentage of the population has no access to telephone service at all. Both enterprises and the general population want more access to basic telephony as well as broadband service; however, there is little fixed infrastructure in place capable of satisfying these demands.

In response to this challenge, Indotel, the Dominican Republic’s regulatory body, has advocated increased competition and instituted efforts to bridge the digital divide through the use of wireless technologies. To that end, Indotel has offered a broad spectral bandwidth to provide broadband services throughout the country. One of the companies that has been engaged to fulfill this objective is Santo Domingo-based broadband service provider ONEMAX – which teamed up with Alcatel-Lucent to develop a service platform based on Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) 802.16e-2005 (Rev-e) – one of the wireless broadband standards.

Six months after the contract was signed with Alcatel-Lucent, ONEMAX launched the world’s first WiMAX 802.16e-2005 (Rev-e) network in the 3.5 gigahertz (GHz) spectrum, connecting its first customer in October 2007.

A Fitting Solution

According to Raoul Fontanez, CEO of ONEMAX, “The Dominican Republic is an ideal market for WiMAX technology because of its strong economy and relatively large population of more than nine million people, whose rapidly growing demand for broadband services needs to be met cost-effectively. At our launch, there were approximately 200,000 Internet subscriptions, yet over 5.5 million mobile subscribers.”

Dominican Republic

Location: Caribbean, eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola, between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, east of Haiti.

 

Area: Total: 18,815 sq. mi. (48,730 sq. km.); land: 18,680 sq. mi. (48,380 sq. km.); water: 135 sq. mi. (350 sq. km.).

 

Population: 9,365,818 (July 2007 est.)

 

GDP (purchasing power parity): $77.09 billion (2006 est.)

 

GDP (official exchange rate): $20.55 billion (2006 est.)

 

GDP - real growth rate: 10.7% (2006 est.)

 

GDP - per capita (PPP): $8,400 (2006 est.)

 

GDP - by sector: Agriculture 11.6%; industry 28.6%; services 59.8% (2006 est.).

 

Source: CIA World Factbook

With ONEMAX, subscribers and visitors can now access wireless broadband applications such as high-speed Internet access, multimedia applications and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. This is generating a new stream of revenue for the company and has created new opportunities for enterprise growth and social interaction.

WiMAX Leapfrogs Infrastructure Gaps

The network, deployed in the 3.5 GHz spectrum band, represents a significant milestone in the commercial introduction of WiMAX services and highlights the opportunity that WiMAX represents for operators worldwide.

Given the wide variety of applications envisaged by ONEMAX, the company defined a new role for itself beyond that of a simple mobile operator. “We introduced a new concept, that of the Mediacom provider: Internet, telephony and new communications services from one service provider. With this concept, information technology and entertainment are fully integrated in our customers’ daily experience,” explained Fontanez.

This led to the selection of Alcatel-Lucent as ONEMAX’s partner in the deployment. Alcatel-Lucent delivered an end-to-end solution designed to integrate multiple device partners and radio features such as Multiple Input, Multiple Output (MIMO) and beam forming.

These features enable ONEMAX to reduce the number of radio sites needed to provide coverage and to maximize bandwidth usage in urban areas and hotspots. Beam forming, for instance, enables a service provider to reduce the number of radio sites needed to provide coverage ­– in some instances by as much as 40% – while reducing interferences and ensuring better indoor penetration of the radio signal. MIMO helps make radio links more robust, nearly doubling the capacity delivered in dense urban environments.

Flexible Deployment and Rapid Time to Market

WiMAX's capabilities offered several advantages during the system's rollout. “With WiMAX, the rollout could be done quickly, at a competitive capital expenditure per subscriber, and it is very easy to target the specific geographic zones where there is strong demand,” said Fontanez. “We initially focused on the capital, Santo Domingo, which we covered with a network from scratch in a few months. WiMAX enabled us to extend our network easily out of the affluent central district, which meant that we could cover low-income communities which are underserved by the existing infrastructure.”

Rapid deployment is one of WiMAX's key benefits for service providers. ONEMAX took just six months to connect its first customer, thanks in part to the close working relationship which developed with Alcatel-Lucent, according to Fontanez. “Through the initial trial phase and the first commercial deployment, Alcatel-Lucent's teams worked the engineering issues with us on-site, resulting in a high-performance network with excellent coverage.” Rapid time-to-market in this case also means rapid return on investment. “We plan on becoming EBITDA¹ -positive quite quickly,” said Fontanez.

ONEMAX offers services to both enterprises (fixed IP, Centrex, Extension dialing, virtual private network, hosting, etc.) and individual consumers (Internet, telephony, multimedia and communications services). The WiMAX service is using Quality of Service to support its VoIP services and to ensure low latency to enhance the communications experience for end users. This has emerged as a key selling point for both consumers and businesses, on top of the general benefits of broadband access services.

 

Figure 1: ONEMAX enabled automated teller machine

 

Innovative Solutions

ONEMAX has taken advantage of the maturity of Alcatel-Lucent’s WiMAX Rev-e solution and the company’s Open Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) Program.

The Open CPE Program is designed to promote an open device ecosystem and supports a wide range of terminals from various CPE partners to ensure customers have access to the widest possible range of interoperable end-user devices.

Using Open CPE, ONEMAX is able to offer a wide variety of CPE for delivering mobile, nomadic and fixed services to end users and enterprises.

Beyond human access to the service, ONEMAX is also using WiMAX for Machine to Machine communication. An interesting example is the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) connection. By connecting ATMs via WiMAX, rather than the fixed wired network, banks can deploy terminals anywhere within network coverage, not just inside a bank branch. An extra benefit of a WiMAX connection on these machines is its “always-on” nature. Compared to a usual dial-up connection, a WiMAX connected ATM will offer quicker transactions for people using the ATM, ultimately leading to an increase of the ATM’s throughput.

Bright Future for WiMAX

Alcatel-Lucent has long believed that WiMAX is an effective solution for rapidly developing countries, where access to voice and broadband services is often restricted due to lack of infrastructure or geographical constraints. These markets can benefit greatly in terms of social and economic development from access to voice and broadband access (in the 3.5 GHz band), which can be quickly and cost-effectively deployed through WiMAX.

"WiMAX will be to broadband wireless what Global System for Mobile communications is to telephony. By that, I mean that, in my opinion, the next billion Internet connections, connecting unserved and underserved populations around the world, will be provided by WiMAX,” said Fontanez.

The ONEMAX experience in the Dominican Republic is proof of the benefits WiMAX can deliver to carriers in developing economies. Access to dial tone is an enabler of increased economic and social interaction; access to broadband opens up the possibility for enterprises to expand the market for their products and to trade more easily beyond national borders.

ONEMAX and WiMAX will continue to contribute to the development of the local economy, and the example of the Dominican Republic will demonstrate to other developing markets not only that voice and broadband services can be deployed cost-effectively to underserved populations, but also that economic and social development can be accelerated by improving access to communications services.

André Méchaly is Marketing and Communications Vice President in Alcatel-Lucent Mobile Access Division, Vélizy, France.
E-mail: andre.mechaly@alcatel-lucent.fr

Jean-Claude Girma is Alcatel-Lucent Country Senior Officer in the Caribbean and Central America, based in the Dominican Republic.
E-mail: jean-claude.girma@alcatel-lucent.com

Associated Items

Media Kit: WiMAX @ Work: Press Information

Presentation: WiMAX @ Work: Presentation by Philippe Keryer, President of Alcatel-Lucent's Mobile Access Activities

Press Release: ONEMAX and Alcatel-Lucent complete the world’s first mobile handoffs on a commercial WiMAX Rev-e network in 3.5 GHz spectrum band

Press Release: ONEMAX and Alcatel-Lucent launch the first WiMAX Rev-e network in the 3.5 Gigahertz spectrum in the world

Web Page: Alcatel-Lucent WiMAX product line overview

Web Page: Alcatel-Lucent, Leader in WiMAX (video and resource center)

Web Page: Making Universal Broadband a Reality: Alcatel-Lucent WiMAX