BIEL-BIENNE (WiMAX Day). The Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) in Switzerland yesterday announced a tender offer for two national Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) licences.

According to a statement made by OFCOM yesterday, the licences are for spectrum in the 3.4 ~ 3.6 GHz frequency range. One licence will be awarded with bandwidth of 2 x 21 MHz and the second license will have 2 x 17.5 MHz

The licenses will enable the provision of national services, and are technology neutral but understood to be aimed for use with WiMAX. The licenses will provide for fixed point-to-multipoint services, and allow roaming from a terminal at any location. In the medium term OFCOM also plan that the licenses will allow for mobile services as well.

The minimum price of the licences has been set at CHF 5.8 million for the 21MHz licence and CHF 4.85 million for the 17.5 MHz licence. By comparison, Swisscom paid CHF 6 million for a 2 x 21 MHz license it was awarded in June 2006

The only other license holder for 3.5 GHz spectrum in Switzerland is Cablecom, owned by Liberty Group, which acquired 2 x 28 MHz in 2000 in a WLL auction. Both Cablecom and Swisscom are excluded from submitting bids in the next auction.

Swisscom is the leading provider of telecommunications services in Switzerland. It is the dominant provider of fixed and mobile communications, and the leading provider of DSL services.

For Swisscom, WiMAX may present a unique opportunity to comply with the recent directive of the Swiss government in September that broadband services must be included in the Universal Service Obligation (USO) as of 2008. The USO is a European Community directive that ensures basic fixed line services are available to all citizens at an affordable price. Switzerland is the only country thus far that includes broadband access as part of USO.

With the onus of USO requirements, WiMAX may be an ideal technology for Swisscom in remote locations. According to Jürg Ruprecht, Head of Wireless Technologies at Swisscom Fixnet, WiMAX is certainly a candidate for last mile solutions, yet no final decision has been made.

Swisscom has thus far performed limited testing of WiMAX and under the terms of its license agreement, it must deploy 30 base stations by the end of 2007, with a total of 120 by the end of 2009. However, as Swisscom has decided to deploy systems compatible with the mobile WiMAX standard 802.16e-2005, there may not be enough certified equipment available over the next year. If this problem persists, Ruprecht noted that Swisscom may need to throttle back their deployment.

The decision to deploy equipment compatible with 802.16e-2005 indicates that Swisscom is likely most interested in the future potential of WiMAX as a mobile technology. Ruprecht previously stated at a conference in September that for Swisscom, “WiMAX is a catalyst for fixed and mobile convergence services,” thus as with most GSM operators, Swisscom may eventually include WiMAX in its portfolio of 4G technologies.