MTN deploys WiMAX in Cameroon

Pan-African carrier MTN confirmed it interest in WiMAX on Wednesday, tapping kit vendor Redline Communications to build a 12 city WiMAX network in Cameroon.

Christian de Faria, MTN’s vice president for the West and Central Africa Region, confessed his interest in the wireless broadband technology earlier this year, telling telcoms.com that the company was looking at WiMAX as MTN moves to position itself as a multi-play provider.

Cameroon is also a fitting place for MTN’s first WiMAX deployment as the country is where the ITU Working Party 8F convened in January of this year to establish a timetable to recognise WiMAX as an IMT-2000 technology.

The first phase of the MTN Cameroon’s WiMAX rollout will include the cities of Douala and Yaounde, with ten additional cities planned for 2008. During this phase, MTN Cameroon will install base stations with capacity to serve thousands of users and will offer VLAN services to more than 700 corporate customers. The company expects to extend its services to more than 12,000 residential users this year.

RapidCloud, Redline’s wireless systems integrator, has initiated the first phase of the WiMAX network already and is developing network plans for each of the additional ten cities where MTN Cameroon will roll out its WiMAX services.

“MTN is revolutionizing broadband services throughout Africa. With the launch of our WiMAX network in Cameroon, the company has catapulted the country to the forefront of telecommunications, bringing the most advanced services available to business and residents, and bringing connectivity ‘Everywhere You Go’,” said Eben Albertyn, chief technical officer at MTN Cameroon.