Alvarion Consolidates Lead in WiMAX Equipment Market

For most of 2009, the WiMAX market is expected to suffer a slowdown in network deployment, expansion, and user adoption, and delays to spectrum availability, says Infonetics Research. The research firm noted though that the fundamental drivers remain sufficiently strong to expect revenue growth to return to the overall market by the end of 2009.

Going into 2010, the WiMAX market is forecast to surge, based on a buildup of postponed shipments.

"Having grown at lung-busting speed for a couple of years, a slowdown and pause for breath for the WiMAX equipment market probably would have been inevitable even without the recession. As it is, economic conditions are exacerbating the pause, with worldwide fixed and mobile WiMAX equipment revenue down 16% from the previous quarter, and further declines expected in 2Q09. However, for 802.16e, the decline is temporary: a positive growth curve should start for the mobile WiMAX market toward the end of this year and continue through 2010," said Richard Webb, Infonetics Research's Directing Analyst for WiMAX, Microwave, and Mobile Devices.

While the WiMAX market is predominantly driven by developing countries, activity is increasing in developed markets as well, including Clearwire's continuing deployment and availability of services, UQ in Japan, and WorldMAX in the Netherlands.

In 1Q09, Alvarion consolidated its overall WiMAX equipment revenue share lead by migrating existing customers to 802.16e networks and winning new business. Alvarion, Alcatel-Lucent, Motorola, Huawei, Cisco, and Samsung represent the major forces in the worldwide WiMAX market, with over 100 publicly announced mobile WiMAX customers between them.

Posted to the site on 30th June 2009