Broadband wireless technology WiMAX is gaining momentum, according to a well-written article by the president and founder of research specialist Maravedis. The article, "WiMAX Forecasts: Supply and Demand Meet 4G Convergence," notes that the market for WiMAX fixed deployments market remains diverse and includes competing technologies such as DOCSIS, TD-CDMA, and proprietary equipment such as Canopy from Motorola. It cites such numbers as close to 350 million broadband subscribers worldwide at the end of 2007, up from 130 million at the end of 2004.
In 2007, WiMAX made some important strides forward, including the fact that the ITU recommendation that WiMAX be added as an official 3G protocol has led to spectrum auction winners in New Zealand and The Netherlands pledging to roll out WiMAX networks in bands previously reserved for 3G mobile telephones. More than 100 mobile WiMAX devices were either announced or made available by the end of 2007. And the fixed/portable broadband wireless access equipment market (sub-11 GHz) grew from $562 million in 2005 to $1.2 billion (USD) in 2007.
Maravedis (www.maravedis-bwa.com)