WiMAX is not dead. At least in Peru, where the national firm Olo has launched mobile Internet services using WiMAX. It is offering prepaid mobile data services in the Lima capital area.
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News reports noted that Olo has deployed a Wimax network and installed antennas across Lima with an initial investment of U.S.$50 million. Olo is expected to expand its Wimax network in other Peruvian provinces starting in the first quarter of 2013. The network expansion is scheduled to roll-out in the cities of Arequipa, Chiclayo and Trujillo.
Also this week, Hughes Network Systems, a broadband satellite solution and service provider, announced that it has been awarded a contract with a major telecommunications operator in Latin America to supply an HX System backhaul solution, enabling the expansion of its GSM and WiMAX wireless voice and data services in rural areas.
Although Olo has bet on WiMAX in Peru, this technology has been passed over in favor of LTE and HSPA+. In Venezuela, for example, even though Venezuelan pay-TV company Movilmax attracted 10,000 subscribers to its WiMAX service, the company plans to migrate its network to LTE technology and expand coverage.
