WiMAX Forum eyes 100 new launches this year

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WiMAX Forum eyes 100 new launches this year

By CAROLINE GABRIEL

Published: 3 March, 2009

READ MORE: WiMAX

As Indian state-owned operator BSNL prepares to select vendors for its massive Mobile WiMAX project, the WiMAX Forum expects 100 operators to launch new services this year based on the technology.

Although the body acknowledges that some carriers will scale back their plans during this year because of the shortage of capital and credit, it also believes WiMAX provides a relatively low cost platform for deploying essential broadband services and taking advantage of many economic stimulus funds becoming available around the world.

"Due to the financial situation, the growth rate of deployments will slow down," said the Forum's VP of marketing, Mohammad Shakouri of Alvarion, which along with Huawei and Telsima (newly acquired by Harris Stratex), is said to be shortlisted for the $1bn-plus roll-out by BSNL. Shakouri said: "Everyone is watching their cash."

There are now 455 WiMAX deployments in 135 countries, according to the Forum, covering over 430m potential subscribers. With 100 further operators joining the list this year, the POPs figure should double by 2010. Although roll-outs are geographically mixed in most areas of the world, the US has been a slow market, apart from the high profile Clearwire project and some 802.16 growth in the 3.65GHz lightly licensed band, which is not an official Forum spectrum. Shakouri, like Intel, is hopeful that some of the $7.2bn set aside for broadband in the newly announced American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will fall into the hands of WiMAX operators. The Forum is forecasting US subscribers to reach almost 4m this year and 18m by 2012.

In device terms, the body estimates that there will be 100 certified products on the market by the end of this year, increasing to 1,000 by 2011. Europe, Latin America and Africa will be key growth opportunities during that period.