WiMAX/BWA gains 1.45 million new users in 2008
Tuesday, 28 April 2009 00:00
4G, Broadband Wireless and WiMAX technologies attracted nearly 1.5 million new subscribers last year, according to Maravedis, an analyst specialising in several sectors within telecoms. And quarter-on-quarter growth reached a highly respectable 21%.
Worldwide, Roughly 1.45 million new BWA/WiMAX subscribers worldwide were added during 2008. Even more encouraging was the 21.5% average quarter-on-quarter subscriber growth rate. Maravedis publishes its conclusions after studying the 7th edition of 4G Counts, its own unique web-based service which tracks 4G operator deployments and provides detailed information on what it calls "the worldwide 4G ecosystem." 4GCounts currently profiles over 200 operators across 92 countries.
Even more good news for 4G advocates comes from Maravedis CEO and founder Adlane Fellah: "Total BWA/WiMAX revenues for 2008 totaled US$1.82 billion, compared with US$898.78 million in 2007 - a 102% annual revenue increase despite the economic downturn that began affecting operator revenues in Q308."
The difficulties are conformed by 4G Counts team leader and report co-author Cintia Garza: "2008 was a difficult year for most WiMAX vendors, which accelerated both market consolidation and niche specialisation in order to survive the downturn....Because many operators are planning to deploy mobile WiMAX equipment, devices based on 802.16-2004 experienced a slow down."
Maravedis analysts state that while LTE networks have yet to become commercial, vendors have stepped up availability of the prerequisite network planning tools, test and measurement systems; LTE and multi-mode ICs and devices are scheduled to become available later in 2009. Progress has also been made on both 3G-LTE systems and on the next generation LTE-Advanced version.
Looking to the future Maravedis identifies government and service industries as the probable top spenders on vertical applications because, as WiMAX operators roll out their networks worldwide, increased availability of coverage will accelerate adoption of vertical services."
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