POSDATA to Expand WiBro Network in Venezuela

POSDATA said on Monday that it has concluded a 30 billion won deal with a South American firm for the sale of Mobile Wimax (WiBro) equipment in three Venezuelan cities.

The establishment of the mobile wireless Internet network in three cities ― Caracas, Valencia and Maracaibo ― will make Venezuela a front runner in the Mobile WiMax deployment with more than 28 million people under its coverage, the firm said.

Under the deal, POSDATA will provide a complete Mobile WiMax package to Omnivision, including 300 base stations and more than 30,000 user terminals this year. The two firms agreed to further increase deployment and service coverage in 2009 and onward, POSDATA said.

Mobile WiMax is one of the next-generation wireless Internet platforms, which enables Internet access on fast-moving cars and trains. POSDATA, a subsidiary of Korean steel maker POSCO, is one of the major equipment providers for the platform along with two other Korean firms, Samsung Electronics and KT.

``With the supply contract with Omnivision, POSDATA has secured a firm base to expand commercial reference throughout South American countries," Shin Joon-il, executive vice president of POSDATA, said in a statement.

Omnivision is the first mobile WiMax operator in Latin America and has provided service running since July 2007.

``We are closely following the Korean and worldwide strategy of Mobile WiMax operators or would be operators,'' Dick Abanto Ishiwata, CEO of Omnivision, said in an e-mail to The Korea Times. ``We had adopted the technology and last year we deployed 64 base stations in Caracas. We have plans to deploy more in other cities,'' he said.

indizio@koreatimes.co.kr