Tatas to invest $500 mln in Wimax

NEW DELHI: Tata Communications on Tuesday announced an investment of $500 million for its wireless broadband venture on WiMax platform and has partnered with US-based Telsima Corporation for equipments.

The company will invest $500 million by 2010 in Wimax technology and is in talks with investors to sell minority stake in retail business, Tata Communications Retail Business Unit President Shankar Prasad said.

Besides, it has selected Telsima to provide Wimax infrastructure and subscriber equipment solutions to deploy commercial Wimax network, with 3,000 base station sectors already getting deployed, which will enable customers to access video, education, music and business services, he added.

Tata Communications is the first to launch broadband services on the Wimax platform on a large scale for retail consumers in India.

In the initial phase, Tata Communications' Wimax network will offer broadband internet access and content services to enterprises and residential customers in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Cochin, Chandigarh, and
Kolkata.

By the end of 2008, the company plans to have enabled Wimax retail broadband service in about 15 cities.