Yozan Expanding Tokyo WiMAX

In 2005, Airspan Networks signed agreements with Yozan Inc. to deploy a Tokyo-wide WiMAX network, valued at $16.7 million, to deliver high speed IP connectivity capable of a wide array of data service offerings. The companies has now announced a further $26 million expansion to their contract, bringing its value to more than $42 million. Airspan expects to deliver between $5 million and $8 million of the total in the first quarter of 2006, with the balance by July.

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Under the agreement, Airspan commenced deliveries of WiMAX equipment in the last quarter of 2005. Yozan was able to launch Japan’s first WiMAX-based service in Tokyo on December 25, 2005. In February 2006, Yozan announced that it would extend WiMAX coverage to the whole Tokyo area, and that it intended to cover all of Nagoya and Osaka with a WiMAX network by the end of June 2006. On February 15th, the company also announced that it had received a license to conduct WiMAX access trials in Okayama, to ascertain the feasibility of offering WiMAX access in remote areas where fiber-based services were not possible. The trials are expected to run until March 2007. Continue