Radios for mobile wDSL and mobile WiMAX will account for approximately 80 percent of the market by 2010, according to a new report from Sky Light Research.
“Key issues for the growth of the wireless broadband market are spectrum availability and carrier convergence, said Emmy Johnson, principal analyst and founder of Sky Light Research. “Mobility enables carriers to meet the customer’s demand for advanced services and the quadruple play - which will in turn provide the secondary revenue streams that under gird mass adoption.”
The ongoing convergence of traditional telephone, cable, Internet and mobility will change the face of competition and unseat the current leaders, Johnson said. The loyalties of approximately 30 million subscribers are at stake.
Key findings of the report include:
* Europe still leads in wireless broadband shipments, but the landscape will change as Southeast Asia gets ramped up and North America picks up speed. However, there are several gating issues, and worldwide frequency availability plays a large role in an operator's decision to roll out WiMAX, as there is a direct relation between frequency availability and the population that can be served.
* CPE will outsell base stations as volume sales increase, and the average selling price will drop to just over $100 in 2010. Sky Light notes that 2006 will reveal some significant chip developments.
* The rapid development and progression of the 802.16e mobile WiMAX specification will impact operator interest in running fixed applications on 802.16-2004 equipment – the first, fixed wireless generation of WiMAX.
* There is disagreement among vendors as to whether the 5.8GHz certification is necessary for the 802.16-2004 fixed WiMAX specification. “The WiMAX Forum has said three vendors are necessary to achieve interoperability, but you need five to be statistically reliable,” says Donna Carlson, principle analyst at Sky Light. “The question boils down to whether certification is essential for operators owning 5.8GHz spectrum.”
from Xchange magazine
nilremerlin
