Worldwide BWA/WiMAX Subscriber Base Closing in on 2 Million

(Business News & Technology News, 28 Jul 2008)

The global BWA/WiMAX subscriber base increased by 260,246 in the first quarter of 2008, reaching a total of 1,988,246 subscribers according to the fourth issue of the WiMAXCounts Quarterly Report from Maravedis.

"Even with an increase of more than 19 percent in WiMAX subscribers in the first quarter of 2008, operators are still waiting for the tipping point that will lead to acceleration of WiMAX adoption and deployments," says Adlane Fellah, CEO and founder of Maravedis. "The key factors mainly centre on certification of mobile WiMAX equipment, a reduction in CPE pricing and the emergence of a device ecosystem."

"Many operators have held back their network expansion pending the mobile WiMAX 802.16e equipment certification, which was announced in June 2008. Mobile WiMAX is a key enabler of a wider range of value-added services and product flexibility," adds Cintia Garza, co-author of the WiMAXCounts Quarterly Report.

"Of the 264 operators tracked in WiMAXCounts, approximately 50 percent of them are providing HIS (High Speed Internet) services only. The remaining percentage corresponds to operators that are offering different applications, such as VoIP, Video, VPN , in addition to HIS. We expect however double/triple play to become the norm in the next two years," says Robert Syputa, Maravedis Partner and Senior Analyst.

Key findings from the latest report are the following:
- 65 percent of operators are already commercial, 14 percent are trialing, 9 percent are planning their launch, 10 percent have idle spectrum and 2 percent have returned/lost spectrum.
- Clearwire USA remains the top operator in number of subscribers, with an estimated 443,000 subscribers in the United States at the end of Q1 2008, an increase of 12.5 percent compared to the 394,000 subscribers reported in Q4 2007.
- The split by subscriber type among WiMAXCounts operators was 65 percent residential and 35 percent business.
- The 3.3GHz-3.8GHz band is the most widely deployed, with 63 percent of WiMAXCounts operators deploying their WiMAX networks in this band in Q1 2008, compared to 70 percent of the Operators deploying in this band during Q4 2007.
- Q1 2008 BWA/WiMAX service revenue among WiMAXCounts operators totaled $366 million, as compared to $303.65 million during the previous quarter, an increase of 20 percent.
- Q1 2008 recorded ARPU was $48 and $146 for residential and business subscribers.
- Motorola remains the leader in equipment deployed for both BWA/WiMAX CPEs and base stations


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