KUALA LUMPUR, 22 Feb, 2009: In preparation for the nationwide launch of its WiMAX service as planned in July, YTL Communications made a commitment to purchase one million units of WiMAX single chip integrated circuits (ICs) from US-based GCT Semiconductor, a leading fabless semiconductor developer, designer and supplier of single-chip ICs, including for Mobile WiMAX.

YTL Communications will consign these chips so acquired, including GCT’s GDM7205 WiMAX single chips and GDM7215 WiMAX/WiFi dual-mode single chips, to key original design manufacturers which will use them in innovative WiMAX equipment and devices for use with YTL Communication's WiMAX service.

These chips combine the radio module and the digital signal processor (DSP) on a single piece of silicon which enables high-speed modularity. They are used in devices such as WiMAX-USB dongles, customer premises equipment (CPEs) such as desktop WiMAX modems, portable routers, VoIP phones, mobile Internet devices, netbooks, femtocells and so on.

Dr. Kyeongho “KH” Lee, President and CEO of GCT Semiconductor claimed that YTL Communication's purchase will CGT to retail 60 percent market share this year, with design wins from over 40 countries, including Malaysia, Korea, Japan, Russia and USA.

While YTL Communications will be the last of Malaysia's four 2.3GHz WiMAX licensees to roll out WiMAX service in Malaysia, its chief executive officer Lee K. Wing had earlier explained in conjunction with the MSC Malaysia International Advisory Panel Meeting and Implementation Council Meeting on 10 November, 2009, that the company planned to launch service with a big bang, with immediate coverage of over 60% of the population, complete with third party content, applications and services to go with it, so as to make it worthwhile for the public to adopt broadband.

“Unlike other WiMAX operators, when we launch, we want subscribers to have coverage everywhere at the flip of a switch and not just in patches,” said Lee.

When asked, Lee explained that it can correctly claim a “nationwide” launch because the scope of its WiMAX license includes both Peninsular Malaysia, as well as Sabah & Sarawak, though it currently only has 2.3GHz spectrum for Peninsular Malaysia but based upon its performance in the Peninsular, he believes it would qualify for spectrum in Sabah and Sarawak as well.

Besides CGT, YTL Communications is collaborating with some industry heavyweights, such as US-based WiMAX operator Clearwire and Samsung.

Track record

As to how YTL Communications can achieve such as wide rollout, with around 2,000 base stations in such a relatively short time, Lee explained that since its parent company, YTL is largely involved in construction, it can easily draw upon its large pool of contractors and subcontractors to build the civil infrastructure in parallel in record time.

Besides construction, YTL Corp. subsidiary YTL Power International owns regional sewage and water treatment company Wessex Water, serving a 10,000 sq km area of southwest England, including Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, most of Wiltshire, parts of Gloucestershire and Hampshire.

The YTL group is also involved in electrical power supply in Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia; cement production in Malaysia, Singapore and China; property development and hotels; technology incubation; as well as the Express Rail Link (ERL) between the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Putrajaya and KL Sentral station.

The company, headed largely by engineers, prides itself on its level of professionalism - and the public can judge that from the mint condition of its ERL trains after over 10 years of operation, compared to the condition of other mass transit urban commuter trains  in Kuala Lumpur which began operation around the same time.

Based upon that track record, we can probably guess how well or how poorly the state of its WiMAX service will be after it begins commercial operation later this year.