A tale of two WiMAX operators

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 08 April 2008 10:21

Opinion and Analysis

Regardless of the subtle distinctions, the fact that both these businesses are prospering shows that a properly designed and configured fixed WiMAX network represents a sound business proposition.

However unlike the much publicised problems of Hervey Bay-based Buzz Broadband   neither BigAir nor Clever is attempting to compete at the bottom end of the market with consumer priced broadband services but higher up with high speed, highly reliable business grade services that compete with and bypass the terrestrial network owned by Telstra and with several fibre networks that are available in major business premises in metropolitan areas.

Meanwhile on the Gold Coast another would be wireless operator, Allegro Networks has launched similar services to BigAir and Clever, but it isn't happy to trust these to class-licensed spectrum and has paid $1m for spectrum licences covering 16 percent of the Australian population on the Gold and Sunshine Coasts and in Brisbane. That's a big handicap to overcome against any competitor paying zilch for its spectrum. Either it will have to convince customers that they need to pay a premium for supposedly higher reliability, or BigAir and Clever will have to suffer some embarrassing outages as result of interference.