Digital Star set to launch WiMAX; targets 150,000 users by year-end

Cambodian telecoms firm Digital Star Media plans to launch WiMAX services next month under the brand name ‘Emaxx’, the Phnom Penh Post reports. According to the operator’s chief operations officer, Frank May, Digital Star hopes to have a total of 75 WiMAX towers in operation by the end of the year and attract some 150,000 subscribers by the same date. The company intends to provide internet access to rural areas, free of charge in some cases, and plans to expand its network partly through a tower sharing agreement with mobile operator Mfone to reduce costs. The firm also aims to introduce Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology in 2012. According to May, the firm was granted a licence to operate in the 2.5GHz to 2.7GHz frequency range in 2007, however last year seven other companies said they had been awarded overlapping spectrum in that range. May maintained that Digital Star received the licence for the frequencies first and claimed that the other companies had been told that they could no longer use the overlapping spectrum.