Taiwanese WiMAX operator Vee Telecom, which offers services under the Vee TIME banner, is understood to have made the decision to halt its wireless broadband operations due to large cumulative operating losses, Digitimes reports. Such plans come despite local telecoms regulator the National Communications Commission (NCC) approving Vee’s application for upgrading from WiMAX 1.0 to WiMAX 2.1 in February, with a ‘Q3 2015’ rollout target now assumed to have been scrapped.
Vee is understood to have more than 10,000 remaining WiMAX subscribers. In recent years it acquired two other WiMAX operators, those being Tatung Infocomm and VMAX Telecom, although Vee has confirmed that Tatung has stopped offering WiMAX-based services, while VMAX’s WiMAX concession expires in January 2016. With Vee TIME, Tatung InfoComm and VMAX said to have suffered a total cumulative loss of more than TWD10 billion (USD327 million), the company now plans to dispose of WiMAX assets to cover part of these losses. Vee TIME’s other services include fibre broadband (up to 100Mbps symmetrical) for consumers and businesses, dedicated Ethernet connections for enterprises, and cloud-based TV/multimedia services (’Vee TV’).
TeleGeography notes that the NCC plans to release new 4G LTE 2500MHz-2600MHz frequencies at the end of Q3 2015, including some spectrum previously used by WiMAX operators.