WiMax Forum announced that over 823 million people were
covered by WiMAX networks at the beginning of 2011.
By the end of 2011 the WiMAX Forum estimates that number
to increase to more than one billion people.
Likewise the WiMAX subscriber base is also increasing
rapidly, with service providers such as Clearwire and UQ Communications
experiencing exponential growth. In 1Q 2011 Clearwire grew its subscriber base
by 1.8 million subscribers, while UQ Communications has grown in the last 6
months by almost 300 percent.
Maravedis Research recently announced that at the end of
Q1 2011 there were 17.25 million WiMAX subscribers globally. According to
Infonetics Research, in 2010 the WiMAX equipment market grew by 85 percent, and
according to market intelligence firm Infiniti Research, the WiMAX equipment
market will reach $6.9 Billion in 2014.
Now WiMAX technology is used by consumers in 150
countries, and is gaining acceptance in vertical industries such as aviation
and Smart Grid.
In June of 2001, a number of technology corporations and
service providers formed the WiMAX Forum to accelerate wide-scale adoption of
Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) technology. The new organization was founded
with three primary goals in mind: establish standards and build profiles
for equipment that ensured interoperability; work with government agencies to
release spectrum; establish and grow an ecosystem nurturing vendor innovation
and carrier deployment to encourage mass adoption of WiMAX
technologies.
The WiMAX Forum was built around the idea of open
standards, free sharing of information, low patent usage fees and collaboration
across the ecosystem,” said Ron Resnick, president and chairman of the WiMAX
Forum.
Our founding members were trying to fundamentally change
the telecommunication industry by introducing an all-IP global standards-based
wireless broadband technology to meet the pent up demands of consumers and allow
for more choice of services and devices. The move away from the traditional
telephony business-model built on voice-centric architecture to an internet
model based on ubiquitous data-centric networks is a revolution that the entire
world will benefit from,” Resnick added.
WiMAX enables innovative complimentary data business
model based on open retail, low IPR and wide bandwidth spectrum allocation
globally serving 4G, rural broadband, backhaul and Smart Grid deployments,”
said Mo Shakouri, corporate vice president, Innovation and Marketing for
Alvarion,
Utilizing WiMAX technology, UQ launched mobile broadband
services in July 2009,” said Akio Nozaka, president of UQ Communications.
WiMAX technology’s high speed capabilities gave us a
competitive advantage over other 3G operators and the number of our subscribers
has quickly grown to 1 million in just two years. I congratulate the WiMAX
Forum on its 10th anniversary and believe the WiMAX industry will continue to
keep our momentum going into the future,” Nozaka added.
By TelecomLead.com Team
editor@telecomlead.com
