MCMC confirms 2600MHz spectrum allocation

Less than a month after rumours initially surfaced that a number of Malaysian players were to be handed wireless broadband spectrum the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has confirmed the allocations. The Business Times reports that following a consultation with a number of technical groups the regulator has assigned frequencies in the 2600MHz band to nine companies: mobile operators Celcom, Maxis, DiGi and U-Mobile; WiMAX players Asiaspace, Packet One Networks (P1), REDtone and YTL Communications; and a new company, Puncak Semangat. The MCMC has confirmed that all nine will be required to pay for the allocated spectrum, although it has not disclosed how much, while it also noted that none will receive funding of any kind from the Universal Service Provision (USP) Fund for utilising the spectrum. All nine companies will now be required to roll out ‘4G’ wireless broadband services, likely using Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology, by 1 January 2013.