STOCKHOLM (WiMAX Day) by Joachim Bamrud. The giant Scandinavian telecom operator TeliaSonera has subsidiaries throughout Scandinavia and the Baltic countries, and several of them are in various stages of testing WiMAX.

“We are still at an early stage, looking at where WiMAX would find its contribution and dominance more than other possibilities,” says Claes Nycander, chief network officer of TeliaSonera, the Stockholm-based telecom operator created after the merger of Telia of Sweden with Sonera of Finland in 2002.

TeliaSonera is presently testing WiMAX in Sweden, Norway and Estonia. “The most advanced regulator when it comes to WiMAX is in Estonia,” he says. “We have an operation in start-up mode for fixed broadband access in Estonia.”

The Estonian testing is through its subsidiary AS Eesti Telekom, which operates Elion Enterprises. Meanwhile, TeliaSonera’s Norwegian subsidiary NextGenTel was awarded a license for 2.5 GHz spectrum in September and is already deploying WiMAX using 3.5 GHz spectrum that was obtained in 2004.

The main WiMAX operations of TeliaSonera are in Sweden, where the operator has been testing the technology in 20 counties for the past year, using a 3.5 GHz spectrum license, as well as equipment from Alcatel, according to Nycander. “We have set up so we have a presence in all counties in Sweden (but) in some counties we have a wider presence than in others,” he says.

TeliaSonera’s license for 3.5 GHz in Sweden is only for fixed WiMAX and, similar to the 3.5 GHz license owned by NextGenTel in Norway, is being used in areas where there is no regular DSL coverage. According to Nycander, the implementation of fixed WiMAX has gone smoothly, however he could not provide any details on consumer feedback or subscriber figures.

Looking to the future with Mobile WiMAX
Unlike GSM, which has been the only alternative in Europe for wireless voice communication, Nycander notes that mobile data is not limited to one technology, making implementation more difficult. With competing technologies such as UMTS, mobile WiMAX, IP-Wireless, Flash-OFDM, etc, he added that, “There is not a one-to-one relation between product and the technology. Today one thus has to choose technology, since it is not efficient to use many technologies for the same product / services. It is for us an optimization challenge to roll out different networks.”

With mobile WiMAX on the horizon, for the moment TeliaSonera is waiting to test compatible 802.16e products. Moreover, mobile WiMAX is dependant on having the relevant spectrum licensing, particularly in Sweden. The Swedish telecom regulator PTS now plans to hold an auction for 3.6 to 3.8 GHz spectrum, according to Urband Landmark, head of the mobile and wireless broadband section at PTS.

“It will be technology – and service neutral,” said Landmark, and the auction will likely take place by June 2007. The last round of WiMAX licenses in Sweden in 2003 were originally limited to fixed WiMAX and later expanded to nomadic use, but not full wireless WiMAX. It is not yet certain if the next round of spectrum to be auctioned will allow for this.

Swedish authorities hope the new auction will mainly attract small, local players, but will also be open for the larger operators, Landmark says. So far, no minimum price has been set.