Residents and businesses in the Amathole district in the Eastern Cape will enjoy high-speed internet access as well as free voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) phone calls within the network by the middle of this year.
This is thanks to a project to roll out WiMAX broadband services in the district. Base stations will be installed in regional centres, including East London, Bisho, King William’s Town, Alice and Fort Beaufort in the first phase of the roll-out.
WiMAX refers to the technology enabling the delivery of wireless broadband internet access.
The network will eventually be expanded to cover other targeted areas in the Amathole district.
“WiMAX is specifically designed to cover wide geographical areas serving large numbers of users at an affordable price,” says Geoff Carey, managing executive of Tellumat, which will install the base stations on behalf of area licence holder Amatole Telecommunication Services.
“Worldwide it’s considered one of the best solutions for ‘last mile’ broadband connectivity. WiMAX technology can offer access speeds approaching 70 megabytes per second per base-station sector,” he says. “The broadband service will be offered with connect speeds ranging between 64 kilobytes and two megabytes, effectively providing a wireless alternative to other broadband service offerings.
Amatole operations director Bevan Booy says the company — which has so far offered cellphone services by agreement with the major cellular networks — will offer voice and data services, including VoIP, through its wireless broadband network.
“People will pay a monthly subscription for an always-on connection to the network, which they can use to access the internet as well as to make VoIP calls,” he says. “All calls within the network will be free, and subscribers will be able to buy air time for calls outside the network or outside the region at very competitive rates.
“There will be no need to buy special equipment — we supply a terminal for each subscriber and they simply plug in existing phones and computers.”
The deal is pending the release of funding from the Universal Service Agency, but Amatole intends to launch its new services in June this year.
“The Amathole district has been very poorly served by the major telecommunications operators so far,” Booy says. “ADSL is available in some suburbs of East London, but in the rest of that city and the district there is little or no broadband access available. There is huge unmet demand from residents and businesses, as well as government agencies, and we expect wireless broadband access to be very well received.”