Last week Freedom4, one of the UK's two WiMAX operators, ended operations when parent company Daisy Communications sold the operation to competitor UK Broadband. The week, Dutch WiMAX operator, Worldmax, has decided to end WiMAX service in Amsterdam by the end of July.
According to Worldmax, the Dutch military is to blame. It claims it was unable to expand WiMAX because of interference in the 3.5GHz band with a military ground station for an intelligence satellite. However, a number of factors contributed to the company's demise, according to Muniwireless. Worldmax's failure to secure a 2.6 GHz license, the economic crisis, poor indoor reception and a lack of roaming all hurt the operator.
Worldmax paid almost $5 million for the license, while its investors, Intel Capital and Enertel Holdings, invested about $37 million to launch the network. Greenfield Capital Partners, an 80 percent owner of Enertel Holding, will likely lose nearly $15 million.
For more:
- see this Muniwireless article
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