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Airspan received some negative publicity back in March from Buzz Broadband but continues to be a respected provider of WiMAX solutions. Vodacom Lesotho, a subsidiary of the Pan-African cellular communications company, has officially selected Airspan to be its WiMAX provider.

Vodacom offers world class GSM service, a standard collection of applications and features available to mobile phone subscribers, to more than 23 million customers in South Africa, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho and Mozambique. Partnering with Airspan will allow Vodacom to provide subscribers with IP data services as a substitute to fixed line broadband access. “Airspan will supply its MicroMAX base stations in the 3.3 - 3.5 GHz frequency band in addition to CPEs (customer premise equipment).” Vodacom believes that Airspan’s solution is perfect, particularly in rural areas, for rapid deployment.

Airspan’s MicroMAX system provides a low-cost, high-performance point-to-multipoint IEEE 802.16 compliant solution. This OFDM based architecture is suited to deliver high-speed data, Voice Over IP (VoIP), and multimedia services to residential, SOHO (small office/home office), and SME (small medium enterprise). MicroMAX offers service providers an integrated access solution, providing quick-to-market deployment and low-market entry cost for broadband services in an expandable “pay as you grow” model.

Given the failure of Airspan’s partnership with Buzz Broadband (mentioned in past posts), Airspan hopes winning this contract with Vodacom will highlight the flexibility and scalability of Airspan’s base stations and CPEs.

Technorati Tags: WiMAX, MicroMAX, Airspan, Vodacom, Buzz Broadband, GSM Service, Ari Zoldan