ABI Research: WiMAX subscriber revenue will grow by 4,500+% this year!

According to ABI Research, even though WiMAX has seen better days in terms of PR which involves such headlines that say Nortel has left the WiMAX market and Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) has “backed off,” the market is poised to take off.

From ABI Research’s release:

Nortel exited the mobile WiMAX market because it failed to become competitive and win any significant business. Nortel is staying in the fixed WiMAX market. Alcatel-Lucent didn’t really back away from mobile WiMAX, but rather views it more as a wireless broadband solution than a fully mobile wireless solution. Alcatel-Lucent moved R&D spending from WiMAX to LTE since WiMAX is productized while LTE is just starting to develop. The lines are very blurred between fixed/portable use of mobile WiMAX and fixed/portable/mobile use of mobile WiMAX. Many deployments will start with fixed and portable services first and may evolve to fully mobile use later.

ABI Research argues that WiMAX has many growth opportunities beyond traditional mobile operator networks, such as data-centric deployments in both developed and developing regions. The research company says that growth will be more modest for WiMAX base stations by themselves for 2009, but 2010 will see healthy expansion.

We’re still kinda sceptical, considering all the buzz surrounding LTE, but you never know. ABI has a new study titled “WiMAX Market Analysis and Forecasts” where they examine major drivers and barriers for WiMAX and the potential for mobile WiMAX devices and services. You can get more information about it from their website.