OSLO (WiMAX Day) by Joachim Bamrud. Norway’s top telecom operator Telenor is considering WiMAX communication to link oil platforms with tankers. Telenor is in a unique position to test such use. Norway is the world’s third-largest oil exporter and already among the leaders globally in terms of broadband penetration.

Arild Johannessen, communications manager for Telenor Nordic stated that Telenor has been “contacted by the oil industry about communications between oil platforms and platform ships.”

Telenor acquired licenses for 3.5GHz spectrum in December 2004, but has yet to implement a WiMAX service. Its top broadband rival, NextGenTel, has already launched test programs in Norway based on its 2004 license and on September 5 won a 2.3 GHz spectrum license for further use.

Telenor has developed traditional broadband access covering 91 percent of the population in Norway, which still leaves 700,000 to 800,000 homes that lack access, according to Johannessen. “We could expand the technology network to cover 93 to 94 percent of the population with traditional DSL technology,” he says. “For the remaining 6 to 7 percent we need a radio technology like WiMAX.”

But Telenor is proceeding with caution. “The necessary equipment for a customer could cost as much as 10,000 NOK (US$1,543) and who should pay that bill is not yet clear” Johannessen stated. “We are therefore waiting for (other) larger telecom operators to launch WiMAX and for the increased investments and volumes to lead to the network equipment and customer equipment becoming significantly cheaper.”

Johannessen expects that WiMAX initially will be used to cover the rural and isolated areas that cannot get broadband today as well as the areas where Norwegians have their hytter, cottages that many Norwegians use as vacation homes. Future uses will also include city hot spots using WiMAX as well as such sectors as the oil industry.

“At Telenor we want WiMAX to become the world standard that companies use, that the equipment becomes cheaper and that we can get some kind of predictability in revenue,” Johannessen added.