The network is expected to be commercially available in September 2007 in the initial launch cities of Santo Domingo, Santiago, Puerto Plata and Bavaro/Punta Cana, with other areas such as La Romana, projected for the near future. Nationwide coverage will be reached incrementally over the next few years. The award of the contract is subject to the execution of a final, legally binding agreement.
Wind Telecom will use Nortel's MIMO-powered WiMAX innovations to deliver services such as VoIP, video-streaming and mobile broadband, which are expected to help bridge the digital divide in the Dominican Republic where broadband services have been limited. Subscribers will be able to benefit from the wealth of information and economic advantages such as e-commerce that are accessible through the use of advanced technologies.
"Wind Telecom is striving to make affordable broadband services available to the mass market in the Dominican Republic, where the adoption of these services has been slow due to high prices, limited availability and insufficient competition. We will be a full service provider of voice, data, and video services," said Manuel Bonilla, CEO, Wind Telecom. "Nortel's WiMAX solution allows us to achieve the goal of affordable broadband for both business and individual consumers, without the complexities of building a wired network. This makes it especially well suited to historical cities like Santo Domingo where the inner-city is dense with buildings, as well as for sub-urban and rural services."
"Wind Telecom firmly believes in the future of the Dominican Republic. The investment environment favors competition and innovation, allowing a greenfield operator with leading-edge disruptive technology to enter the market and become a prime competitor," said Jose Clase, chairman of the board of Wind Telecom. "Our company has the unique opportunity of significantly contributing to the development of the Dominican Republic while at the same time creating a prosperous telecom business."
"With this end-to-end solution, Wind Telecom will become one of the first wireless broadband operators in the Dominican Republic to support fixed, portable, and mobile services," said Peter MacKinnon, general manager of WiMAX, Nortel. "With its high-bandwidth capabilities, minimal infrastructure requirements and one of the lowest costs per megabit in the industry, Nortel's WiMAX solution will help Wind Telecom position itself as a premium network operator."
The network will be an end-to-end solution for Wind Telecom, including consumer devices, mobile WiMAX base stations, ASN gateway, business support system (BSS) and operational support system (OSS) platforms as well as professional services such as training. All proposed base stations will be operating in the 2.5GHz frequency band. As well as supplying the equipment, Nortel is to be responsible for the deployment, support and maintenance of Wind Telecom's entire network.
Nortel's 4G WiMAX solution (standard 802.16e) delivers one of the highest performances in the smallest footprint with one of the most competitive costs per megabit in the industry, according to the company. It is built on a foundation of OFDM-MIMO, a combination of innovative transmission and antenna technologies that maximizes spectrum to deliver the lightning-fast speeds and high bandwidth essential to high-quality mobile video and TV.
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Photo of buildings of the metropolitan section of Santo Domingo by Edwin Casado Baez. Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike License v. 2.5
