SAN SALVADOR (WiMAX Day) by Joachim Bamrud. The densely populated Republic of El Salvador is the most advanced market in Central America for WiMAX, and according to experts, has significant growth potential.

“The country with the largest potential for WiMAX is El Salvador,” says Cintia Garza, a Mexico-based market analyst with the Canadian consultancy Maravedis. “This country not only has the largest number of WiMAX licenses but also the largest number of broadband subscribers.”

El Salvador has awarded a total of 15 licenses, including four last year. They are all regional. Telemovil and SALNET El Salvador were among the companies that received their WiMAX licenses in October last year, and are now deploying their networks.

“Although many companies already own a WiMAX license, most of them are in the process of trials and evaluation, or trying to implement it and launch a commercial WiMAX network,” Garza said. The struggle is now to offer services at an affordable price, as compatible CPE equipment on the market is too expensive for the average citizen in El Salvador.

There are currently some 60,000 broadband subscribers in El Salvador, out of a population of 6.9 million. Except for Costa Rica, the other countries in Central America have less than 40,000 broadband subscribers, Garza points out.

High-bandwidth neighbors
Guatemala is the second-largest WiMAX market in Central America, with 13 licenses (nine regional and four nationwide). WiMAX was introduced in Guatemala in 2005 by Spanish Internet company Terra, which launched “Terra Extremo” in 2005 with speeds of up to 2.4Mbps. With Central America’s largest economy and population, Guatemala also has strong WiMAX potential.

Honduras has awarded nine WiMAX licenses, and is the only Central American country to issue national licenses. During the last quarter of 2006, Metrored (Navega) expanded its WiMAX coverage in 12 municipalities including San Lorenzo, Santa Rosa de Copan, La Ceiba, Tocoa, Danli, Juticalpa, Catacamas, Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, Naco, Choloma y Villanueva, and is currently offering WiMAX solutions to business users only.

Nicaragua, the poorest economy in Central America, has yet to award a WiMAX license, but is expected to award four in the next year, following a public consultation last year for allocation of spectrum in the 3.4 ~ 3.6 GHz band, Garza says.

In Costa Rica, state telecom and electricity monopoly El Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) is planning to launch WiMAX services to 20,000 subscribers in the capital San Jose this year. This launch follows limited testing that was done last year with 100 subscribers in the San Jose suburbs of Escazú y Santa Ana.

This week, ICE also awarded a contract to WiMAX equipment vendor Airspan (through its local partner Datatell) to build a nationwide WiMAX network in the licensed 3.5Ghz frequency band. According to a press release from Airspan, the project is one of the most ambitious and comprehensive WiMAX networks planned for deployment in Latin America in 2007, and it is expected eventually to cover all major population centers in Costa Rica.

The contract is valued at approximately $11 million, and according to Amit Ancikovsky, Airspan’s Vice President & General Manager, Americas, this is “the largest WiMAX project awarded so far in Latin America.”