|
Bridgewater Systems, a Canada-based service control solutions
developer company, sees the Philippines as a big market for
Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, or WiMAX
technology.
In a press briefing on Wednesday, Jean-Francois
deMontigny, technical director of Bridgewater Systems for
Asia-Pacific region, said they are “seeing an increase in
broadband demand” in the country and thus it indicates a good sign
for WiMAX deployments.
DeMontigny said even some of its top partners
and WiMAX carriers, such as Nortel, Motorola, “smell there is
going to be a big growth [broadband connectivity] in the
Philippines,” he said.
Besides the Filipino characteristic of being
tech-savvy, one of the key indicators of the country as a good
environment for WiMAX technology is its “creative marketing
environment,” according to David Brooks, managing director of
Bridgewater Systems for Asia-Pacific region; thus, it makes the
Philippines an “exciting market” to develop WiMAX technology for
Bridgewater.
“Philippines is part of our lead market,”
Brooks said.
WiMAX is a wireless Broadband technology based
on the IEEE 802.16 (WiFi is 802.11xx) standard that offers a larger
bandwidth. This technology, as an alternative to cable and digital
subscriber lines (DSL), delivers faster broadband services to a
large number of users. With its higher capacity, it enables video,
Internet, and other mobile devices access across greater distances
wirelessly.
Locally, Globe Telecom announced WiMAX testing
in 2005, but announcements for rolling out WiMAX services
commercially have yet to be heard of in the country. However,
neighboring countries such as South Korea and Taiwan are
already using WiMAX.
Among the solutions that Bridgewater Systems
offers include: over-the-air provisioning WiMAX solution, on-demand
services control solution, and WiMAX prepaid service control
solution.
Bridgewater Systems has offices in Canada, US,
Europe and Asia.
-- Cris-Ann G. Odronia
|
