Malaysia’s Business Times is reporting that the Deputy Minister of Information, Communication and Culture, Datuk Joseph Salang, has claimed three of the country’s four WiMAX concession holders have yet to reach the standards set out in the business models they presented to obtain the licences. While the minister did not specify which of the four operators had achieved its targets, he said: ‘We are not sure whether their infrastructure is operational or whether they are still in the planning stage. Two of the service providers have yet to start their full services, and are still far from the business plan they had presented in order to get the licence.’ Additionally he revealed that the ministry had directed the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to monitor developments, calling on it to work with those operators failing to reach its required targets.
Of the four operators issued WiMAX licences – Packet One Networks, Asiaspace Dotcom, REDtone-CNX and Y-Max Networks – only the latter has yet to launch any commercial services, according to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database. In April 2009 Y-Max announced it was preparing to sign a contract with Samsung for WiMAX equipment deployment, but no further developments have since been reported, leading to speculation its licence may be revoked.