Malaysia to name WiMax licence winners soon

KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 1 (Reuters) Malaysia will announce in a few days winners of licences to operate wireless broadband WiMax services, as the country scrambles to boost Internet transfer speeds to catch up with technology-savvy neighbours.

Communications Minister Lim Keng Yaik said on Thursday the number of spectrum to be given out depended on the recommendations by industry regulator, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). Malaysia has said it aimed to launch the service this year.

The regulator said it had completed its evaluation on the applicants and would forward its recommendations to the ministry soon. It gave no details.

''Whether it's going to be all the four or two first or one first, it depends on the MCMC recommendations,'' Lim was quoted by the official Bernama news agency as saying.

The government had said that up to four blocks of the 2.3 GHz spectrum would be up for grabs, but was looking to award only two blocks initially.

Seventeen firms applied for the high-speed WiMax spectrum. They include state-controlled telecommunications firm Telekom Malaysia , and mobile phone services operators Maxis Communications and DiGi.Com .

The Star newspaper reported last month that technology firms Green Packet and YTL e-Solutions were front-runners to win a WiMax licence.

REUTERS CS PM1517