Motorola won its third major contract to provide base stations to a Taiwanese WiMAX license winner, First International Telecom (Fitel), but the company plans to scrutinize the gear amid interoperability worries.

Fitel will pay around NT$600 million ($19.7 million) for base stations from Motorola as well as network elements and network integration work from UTStarcom, said Charlie CY Wu, the president of Fitel, by phone.

Fitel will order around 88 Motorola base stations at NT$2.5 million each to set up a test network in the capital of Taiwan, Taipei, and begin testing in June, he said. If all goes well with the tests, the company will launch commercial WiMAX service in Taipei and Hsinchu, the technology industry heartland of the island, in the first quarter of next year.

According to Motorola, the NT$2.5 million price also includes installation and transmission costs.

The Taiwanese company has two major concerns about its WiMAX network, said Wu. The first is performance and coverage. People in Taiwan are used to speedy Internet service, and will expect wide-ranging, fast wireless connections from WiMAX service providers. The second major concern is interoperability among the devices people will use to access Fitel's WiMAX network.

Most people will need an add-on WiMAX card or USB device for their laptop PC in order to access Fitel's WiMAX network, or will try to access from a variety of new laptop PCs and mobile Internet devices. But there are so many new devices coming out now for WiMAX that it's hard to ensure they will all work on Fitel's network.

"We want people to be able to roam among WiMAX networks, not just in Taiwan but also overseas visitors and when Taiwanese go overseas," said Wu.

Motorola could not be immediately reached for comment.

The U.S. technology giant has won 19 contracts for commercial WiMAX networks in 18 countries around the world, it said in a statement.

The industry group, WiMax Forum, has forecast that there will be more than 133 million WiMAX users globally by 2012, and that nearly three-fourths of those people will use mobile and portable WiMAX devices to access wireless broadband Internet networks.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.

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