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Just in time for the Mobile World Congress, the WiMAX Forum announced that WiMAX Service Providers now offer networks covering 430 million people (aka POPS) globally and are on a path to nearly double to 800 million people by the end of 2010. In addition, global WiMAX network deployments are approaching 460 in more than 135 countries for fixed, portable, and mobile networks.
One of the important sources of growth for the further WiMAX network deployments are the new spectrum licenses anticipated to be allocated in countries such as Brazil and India. Additionally, the ecosystem can expect to see continued subscriber growth as consumers and enterprises recognize the availability of WiMAX as a high-speed low-cost alternative to other Internet technologies.
According to Intel’s Sean Maloney, after several years in development, 2008 was the year that WiMAX became a global reality. “In both emerging markets and mature countries, companies and governments are deploying 4G WiMAX networks to help bridge the digital divide and bring affordable, super-fast mobile broadband to their citizens. As countries look to accelerate broadband in 2009 to address economic recovery, WiMAX is ready – it’s the right technology at the right time. There is no need to wait – WiMAX is a reality today,” he concluded.
In related news, the WiMAX Forum announced that Samsung’s U-RAS Flexible and ZTE’s 9100+R9100 base stations received the WiMAX Forum Certified seal of approval for products for the 3.5 GHz spectrum band…
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
