Fiji's other coup: Alvarion wins WiMAX deal

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 06 December 2006 10:35

Business IT - Networking

Fiji International Communications (Fintel) is planning to build out a WiMAX network covering a number of islands in the Fiji archipelago using Alvarion's BreezeMAX technology.

Working with Australian systems integrator, Paclink, Fintel will start by offering services in Suva, and says it will later expand the network to "more of the 330 islands in the archipelago." However it has given no time frame for this expansion or said how many islands it intends to cover.

Jone Wesele, commercial & business development manager of Fintel, said: "BreezeMAX has proven to be ideal for our island terrain. It's a robust, ruggedised system with exceptionally high performance for our non-line-of-sight environment and meets the demanding bandwidth and service requirements of our busy tourist industry."

According to Alvarion, BreezeMAX has been designed from the ground up according to the IEEE 802.16 standards and uses OFDM technology for advanced non-line-of-sight functionality. Since its launch in mid-2004, BreezeMAX has been successfully deployed in over 200 installations in more than 80 countries around the world, Alvarion claims.

Fintel, jointly owned by the Government of Fiji (51 percent) and Cable and Wireless (49 percent) is Fiji's only licensed international carrier and operates a submarine optic fibre cable terminal and a satellite earth station at Vatuwaqa, Suva.