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…