Yesterday I visited the Microelectronic Research Center at Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB), Indonesia. ITB is one of long-serving technical universities in Indonesia. It is founded in 1920 by the Dutch as Bandung Technische Hogeschool and refounded in 1959 by the Government of Indonesia as Institut Teknologi Bandung. Its Microelectronic Center has coined the idea about Bandung High-Tech Valley (BHTV), after Silicon Valley concept in California which connects Academia-Business-Government (ABG). In fact, many universities and technology enterprises are operating in Bandung and many talents both in hardware and software engineering can be found easily in Bandung.
Yesterday the head of the Center, Dr. Trio Adiono showed me a prototype of WiMAX 16d subscriber station. Not as many has predicted that any 16d SS is too big to be operational, it is relatively as small as normal modem. It is surprised me because it has been tested and operating from distance of 10 km with data streaming of 4 Mbps. I think once it can be produced in economical scale and the effective cost per unit is achieved, it will be a great success. By combining this and wifi - which also under research by the Center - it will be able to connect houses and offices in both rural and city areas.
The license of WiMAX in Indonesia is now released only for 16d by the Ministry of Communication and Information. There is no sign yet that the Ministry will offer also license for 16e nor LTE operation. The potential of (nomadic) WiMAX is actually very high actually, as 200 million inhabitants across archipelago are eager for fast yet cheap data communication.
No comments:
Post a Comment