With endless availability of information and a degree of uncertainty in terms of where the worldwide economy is headed, looking forward at the next 12 months and attempting to predict anything is a daunting task. This being said, however, it isn't too much of a stretch to predict that 2010 will be the year of WiMax.
According to the WiMax Equipment, Devices and Subscribers forecast report by Infonetics Research, the number of global WiMax subscribers is expected to grow from 4 million at present to 130 million subscribers by 2013. Nearly every developing country currently has a WiMax network and this demand for wireless Internet access is expected to exponentially increase in the future.
Daniel Levy, GM Africa and Middle East at Alvarion, says there are already over 475 WiMax networks deployed to date in 140 countries worldwide, and although exact numbers are debatable, there is no doubt that substantial growth and network expansion is taking off at a very fast pace. “In addition to an increase in the number of networks traced by WiMax, many of the already established WiMax networks in Africa continue to rapidly expand,” he says.
WiMax deployment and expansion will not ignore Africa, he adds. “WiMax's increasing popularity globally is matched by major momentum taking off in developing countries that are currently struggling to gain wireless Internet capabilities. Though poor infrastructure, insufficient resources, lack of knowledge and financial instability are major problems facing developing countries, WiMax has proven to be the best means of providing wireless Internet at broadband speeds - and looking ahead at the ways in which WiMax will benefit additional countries in the future is a hopeful and exciting prospect.”
With a maturing vendor ecosystem and networks beginning to ramp, we should expect to see a variety of WiMax enabled devices in 2010, says Levy. With the increase of WiMax subscribers and larger build-outs by operators, we should also begin to see further declines in WiMax CPE prices.
“2010 should put WiMax firmly on the broadband map,” says Levy. “At a time when the world is looking forward warily, we're anticipating a good year.”
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Alvarion
Alvarion (NASDAQ: ALVR) is the largest WiMax pure-player with the most extensive WiMax customer base and over 250 commercial deployments around the globe. Committed to growing the WiMax market, the company offers solutions for a wide range of frequency bands supporting a variety of business cases. Through its OPEN WiMax strategy, superior IP and OFDMA know-how, and proven ability to deploy end-to-end turnkey WiMax projects, Alvarion is shaping the new wireless broadband experience (www.alvarion.com).
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