Mobile WiMAX Will Grab a Significant Market Share in 2012

Mobile WiMAX will connect 8% of the world's 1.1 billion mobile broadband subscribers by 2012, accounting for nearly 88 million users worldwide, according to a report from Parks Associates, which also forecasts 52% of these subscribers will be from Asian countries while North and South America will account for another 28%.

"Today, most existing WiMAX deployments are the province of aspiring start-up service providers or incumbent telecom carriers looking to fill coverage gaps," said Yuanzhe (Michael) Cai, Director of Broadband and Gaming, Parks Associates. "The imminent availability of commercial products and increasing availability of spectrum around the world will change the market for mobile WiMAX and make it viable among major service providers. Taiwan alone will have eight million mobile WiMAX subscribers by 2012."

According to the report, approximately 160 million cellular subscribers, 6% of all cellular subscribers, were using a mobile broadband service at the end of 2006. Two-thirds of these mobile broadband subscribers used UMTS technology, and the remainder used CDMA EVDO.

"Both mobile WiMAX and UMTS/HSDPA technologies will gain market share in the next several years, at the expense of CDMA EVDO," Cai said, "TD-SCDMA will also have a meaningful market share due to its strong foothold in China, the largest mobile market in the world."

Posted to the site on 1st June 2007