Where's the WiMax license?

Malaysia was expected to announce at least two winners of licenses to operate WiMax services by the end of this month.

The announcement was to end months of speculation on which of the 17 applicants will be allocated the 2.3 GHz spectrum.

It's been reported that the government would award up to four licenses but Communications Minister Lim Keng Yaik has said he would most likely award two blocks first and release the remaining two later.

Mid-last month, local media reported that two local companies, Green Packet and YTL-e are likely to be the winners of the first two licenses.

This has not been confirmed yet and it's anybody's guess how long the government will take to make up its mind on who to award the license to.

DiGi.com--one of three mobile telcos operating in Malaysia--should be a shoo-in for a WiMAX licence as it was earlier denied a 3G license earlier.

To deny it a WiMAX licence as well would reflect badly on Malaysia's attitude toward foreign investors (DiGi is controlled by Telenor, the leading Norwegian telco).

But, this is Malaysia and you never can tell what will happen.