Services offered by Iranian WiMAX operator Datak Telecom will reportedly be completely cut off from 12 December 2013, with the company allegedly allowed a ten-day deadline to address the payment of outstanding royalties to telecoms regulator the Communications Regulatory Authority of Iran (CRA), local news agency WIMAX News reports. According to the article, Datak Telecom failed to get authorisation for the continuation of its WiMAX services, with the one year renewal deadline now expired.
As previously reported by TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, in June 2013 the CRA announced that only four companies were licensed to provide services based on WiMAX technology in Iran. The CRA also warned that the company should not attempt to attract new customers until the matter is settled.
According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, Private Access Provider (PAP) licence holder Datak Telecom received a licence to provide mobile WiMAX services in November 2008, having previously launched pre-WiMAX services in Tehran, and its WiMAX (802.16e) services were rolled out in the capital in 2010 following an equipment contract awarded to Samsung. However, Datak subsequently appears to have failed to comply with regulatory conditions to renew its WiMAX licence, while the company’s website is currently inactive. The first WiMAX service in Tehran was launched back in January 2007 by Laser Telecom, utilising a temporary licence. At the time of writing, Laser’s service was no longer operational.