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WiMAX to Dominate Global Wireless Broadband Market

http://www.wirelessdesignasia.com/article.asp?id=533

Online staff — Wireless Design & Development Asia

Although the WiMAX movement continues to focus on mobile opportunities, it is the traditional fixed wireless markets that will remain the technology's bread and butter through 2009, according to a new report from Visant Strategies. The worldwide wireless broadband audience of 5 million in 2005 is expected to grow by 40% yearly through 2010 and Visant Strategies believes WiMAX vendors will be perfectly poised to take advantage of this building market.

Visant Strategies foresees a $3.4 billion annual opportunity for fixed and portable broadband equipment by 2010. "WiMAX will account for 50% of that multi-billion dollar market by the end of the decade, with much activity in the 3.5 GHz band," said report author Andy Fuertes. "The market for cable modem and digital subscriber line replacement is expanding today while WiMAX in the mobile network remains 2 years to 4 years away."

The mobile WiMAX community is faced with political, technical and competitive challenges, the report finds, impacting time to market, which is paramount since the 802.16e specification is not yet finished. "Certified mobile WiMAX equipment will arrive during or after 2007 and mobile carriers typically test new technologies from 12 months to 18 months before implementing them throughout the network," Fuertes said.

WiMAX will still become a factor in the mobile market in the years to come since most operators will not commit to additional major upgrades prior to 2009 and the standard is gaining support. Flash-OFDM, TD-CDMA and future revisions of 3GPP and 3GPP2 will also play a role in both the fixed and mobile markets. Some of these platforms, especially Flash-OFDM, already have considerable technical and time to market advantages over mobile WiMAX.