WiMAX : 100 million by 2014

WiMAX: 100 million by 2014

Posted by samc on February 4th, 2008

Telecommunications market research firm Maravedis today announced the publication of the fifth edition of its yearly report “WiMAX, LTE and Broadband Wireless Worldwide Market Trends 2008-2014.”

Maravedis forecasts WiMAX subscribers to exceed 100 million by 2014. “WiMAX chipsets will start to be embedded in laptops in the second half of 2008, into handheld devices in 2009, and into consumer electronics by early 2010,” said Adlane Fellah, President and CEO of Maravedis and co-author of the report.

On the technology side, the report confirms that both WiMAX and LTE are converging upon 4G service capabilities. LTE’s primary market, 3G operators, will be unlikely to adopt LTE until 2012-2014. “While LTE appears to have the decisive volume advantage, the lag between 3G evolution and the next generation mobile network will greatly benefit WiMAX,” said Robert Syputa, co-author of the report.

Highlights of the report include the following:

• The accumulated market size for combined demand and supply of WiMAX equipment will reach $42 billion by 2014.
• There were over 1,650,000 BWA subscribers, including 635,000 WiMAX subscribers, at the end of 2007.
• Motorola was the leader in BWA and WiMAX combined equipment markets, with a 23% market share, followed by Alvarion at 18%.
• The combined BWA and WiMAX equipment market totaled US$1.2 billion in 2007.
• The mobile version of WiMAX (802.16m) in 2011 will challenge cellular phone volume dominance.
• Opportunities exist in the 700 MHz spectrum for both WiMAX and LTE protocols.

“As predicted by Maravedis, more than 100 Mobile WiMAX devices have been announced or made available commercially,” said Jeff Orr, co-author of the report.

A January Maravedis research report, written by senior analyst Tim Sanders, notes that the rollout of mobile WiMax faces many hurdles before it can be widely adopted. He noted that interest and commitments to LTE (Long Term Evolution) is gaining, and Sprint and other suppliers must send clear signals to the wireless broadband world about development plans for WiMax.

“LTE is still two years behind WiMax,” Sanders said. “But the technologies are so close that they may end up converging in three or four years.”

source : dailywireless.org