EVO-lution; Super iMAX to replace WiMAX with TD-LTE

WiMAX operator Super iMAX, which trades under the ‘EVO’ brand name, intends to launch Time Division Long Term Evolution (TD-LTE) services in Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and major cities in the Ferghana valley in 2015. The following year will see the operator extend the network nationwide to replace its existing WiMAX platform. In terms of financing, parent company KT Corp will invest USD10 million on the network overhaul programme, as well as leveraging its own considerable experience with LTE networks: KT Corp has operated 4G networks in its domestic market of South Korea since January 2012. In a press release, EVO said that its new network will be available in previously inaccessible areas, adding that the launch of TD-LTE would be a catalyst for the internet market in Uzbekistan. Traditionally the broadband market in doubly landlocked Uzbekistan has suffered from the shortage of international bandwidth, the nation relying heavily on satellite and overland cable routes for international capacity. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, this situation is gradually improving, however, with sector regulator State Committee for Communications, Information and Telecommunication Technologies (CCITT) noting in February 2014 that the combined total capacity of the nation’s international networks had increased to 10.3Gbps from 8.37Gbps in 2012.