SIX service providers have sunk in a combined total of nearly $10 million for licences to provide wireless broadband services, but three years on, most are far from reaping returns from their costly investments.

With a single exception, all the companies that were awarded the Wireless Broadband Access (WBA) rights through a government auction in 2005 have yet to kick-start large-scale commercial deployments.

And one in particular, is coming dangerously close to breaching the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore's (IDA) rollout deadline. The telecommunications regulator issued six WBA licences then with the aim of expanding Singapore's stable of Internet access offerings beyond fixed- line technologies such as ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) and cable modems. Two radio frequency bands - the 2.3GHz and 2.5GHz spectrum - were designated for these services.

'IDA's policy objective for allocating the WBA spectrum is to enhance the competitiveness of the broadband market. In line with our policy objective, IDA required that the WBA spectrum is used towards offering publicly available wireless telecommunication service,' an IDA spokesman told BizIT.

Despite a base price of only $1,000 per spectrum lot, the buzz surrounding the commercial potential for wireless broadband translated to a fierce bidding war, with interested parties paying $215,200 or more instead.

The successful bidders were DoCoMo interTouch (formerly inter-touch Holdings), M1, PacNet (formerly Pacific Internet), QMax Communications, SingTel and StarHub.

Companies that were allocated the 2.3GHz spectrum were given three years from the award date to launch their services while those given the 2.5GHz band had 18 months to do so.

Unlike Wi-Fi hotspots which provide patchy coverage and are confined to small areas, broadband offerings using these IDA-assigned spectrums are expected to cover a range of tens of kilometres and offer users viable high-speed alternative to fixed-line Net access. In particular, WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) was widely-viewed as one of the technologies for delivering this promise at that time.

Among the winning bidders, QMax is the only one to have introduced WiMax services commercially, offering consumers in some districts wireless broadband packages of up to 512 Kbps (kilobits per second) by plugging a token-like modem to their computers.

The company is currently expanding its coverage zones with the aim of providing island-wide services by next year.

'As a result of our understanding and close partnership with our technology vendors, we are confident in what WiMax can deliver. At the same time, not being a mobile operator helps in our decision-making,' said QMax director Alex Tan.

In stark contrast, the five other WBA licensees appear less bullish, judging from their inconsistent deployments to date. Despite paying at least $1 million each to own multiple spectrum lots, commercial services riding on these radio frequency bands are almost non-existent.

All three local mobile operators - SingTel, StarHub and M1 - and PacNet were awarded the 2.5GHz frequency band which came with an 18-month launch obligation.

SingTel has only conducted WiMax trials so far and its CEO Allen Lew admitted at a conference last week that the company is still deciding between two technologies for its wireless broadband upgrade.

WiMax and LTE (Long Term Evolution), an upgrade to existing high- speed cellular networks for delivering speeds of 1Gbps (gigabit per second) or more, are being studied and deployment could start within the next three years, he said in his keynote address at the WiMax Forum Congress Asia.

'Customer equipment form factor and availability is limited, thus we hope to see maturity in the WiMax ecosystem in order to better plan our broadband strategy. The delay in the certification process adds uncertainty to the development of WiMax,' a SingTel spokesman added.

PacNet on the other hand, is merely using the allocated spectrum to offer an enterprise wireless broadband offering in the western part of the island through a 'proprietary' technology, a company official said.

In similar vein, M1 is using its designated frequency band for a free Internet service at Parco Bugis Junction through 'Mesh Wi-Fi' technology. 'The service is still ongoing and has been extended to cover the area around SMU (Singapore Management University),' an M1 spokesman said.

StarHub declined to provide details of how it is using the WBA spectrum but claimed it has 'fulfilled' IDA's licensing obligations.

DoCoMo interTouch, the last WBA licensee, has yet to disclose plans but it has less than two months left to do so under the regulator's 2.3GHz licensing agreement.

'DoCoMo interTouch is currently exploring opportunities in this area. At this stage we are unable to elaborate further on this, however we will update as soon as there are any new announcements,' said company CEO Charles Reed.