Sources at the Ministry of Communications say that the ministry has completed its hearing on WiMAX policy, and in the absence of any last-minute problems, the final policy will be published by the end of next week. A tenders committee will be announced at the same time.
The publication means that Minister of Communications Ariel Atias will have kept his promise to complete the ministry's WiMAX policy before his term ends. The Ministry of Communications has been deliberating its WiMAX policy for four years.
No substantive changes are expected in the WiMAX policy already published in previous documents. However, the tenders committee will have more latitude to discuss various matters related to the formulation of the tender.
One problem still remains: the tender's mechanism. Atias is urging that the tender be based on the lost price per minute (a reverse tender), while the Ministry of Communications' team does not know how to ensure this for such a technology.
A reverse tender is intended to ensure that low prices for the public will be a key factor in choosing the bidders. However, WiMAX is based on Internet Protocol (IP) and there is no concept of price per minute for IP. It will be necessary for economists to come up with a formula for something that has never been tried.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 20, 2009
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