"WiMAX networks continue to expand at a very healthy pace despite challenges from the slowly recovering global economy," said Ron Resnick, president and chairman of the WiMAX Forum. "These new deployment numbers and population statistics demonstrate that the WiMAX ecosystem has strong momentum for the start of the New Year and will continue to meet the global market demand for high-speed broadband access in developed and emerging regions."
"Clearwire plans to continue rolling out our 4G network to additional markets in 2010 with the launch of service in several large metro areas, including New York, Houston and the San Francisco Bay area - ultimately reaching up to 120 million people by the end of 2010," said Ali Tabassi, senior vice president of global ecosystem and standards for Clearwire Corporation and WiMAX Forum Board member. "The expansion of our footprint will help meet the pent up demand for true mobile broadband in the U.S. and allow us to continue to serve as a global resource for best practices in 4G network development around the world."
In February 2009, the WiMAX Forum originally projected that WiMAX technology would reach 800 million POPs by the end of 2010. This February 2009 projection does not account for potential growth WiMAX will experience once spectrum is auctioned in India and networks are deployed in the Philippines as well as Indonesia.
"WiMAX has huge potential in Indonesia, where only four percent of its 240 million population has access to fixed-line infrastructure and less two million have broadband access," said Basharat Ashai, an analyst with Maravedis "4GCounts Team". "Recently, 73 telecom companies participated in an auction that yielded only eight winners and many of those operators plan to deploy in 1H 2010."
By region, WiMAX Forum research uncovered the following:
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