Mauritius world's first unwired WiMax nation

The tiny (very tiny: 100 sq.mi., 1.2 million people) Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius is about to become the world's first country to deploy a complete nationwide high-speed wireless network. The government calculates that the new network will make the beautiful island a hub of cyber business activity, expanding the small nation's economy beyond tourism and fishing. Navini nomadic broadband wireless access will offer covergae of the entire island, part of it rather mountainous and rugged, addressing the residential, business, and recreational needs of the island's population and year-round visitors. The deployment will take advantage of next-generation 802.16e-based WiMax.

Navini's system is a non-line-of-sight (NLOS) WWAN solution featuring smart antennas. The technology provides a wide range of coverage, extending miles from the base station. Since it is a zero-install solution within the area of NLOS coverage, customers will have no problem to get it going. In conjunction with this island-wide WiMax deployment, the government of Mauritius announced it was becoming an e-government: By the end of the year every Mauritian will be able to conduct any and every business related to the government online and wirelessly throughout the country. Citiziens ordering services on-line will be able to access these services the same day the service is ordered. The entire network is being installed by ADB Networks the main Internet Service Provider in Mauritius.

For more on Mauritius' move:
- see this gizmag's report [1]
- the Mauritius government's e-government  [2]| cyberhub [3] pages
- ADB Networks website [4]