Communications and Technology Industry Research

Wireless broadband Internet deployments based upon WiMAX have reached 519 in 146 countries despite the financial downturn. The deployments also include 95 WiMAX (News - Alert) networks deployed by 2G mobile operators.

 

Of the 519 WiMAX deployments to date, 112 were added in 2009. The WiMAX ecosystem also advanced certification activity with 86 products receiving WiMAX Forum (News - Alert) Certified status in 2009. In addition, FDD WiMAX was accepted into the IMT-2000 family of standards and more than 50 companies endorsed the IEEE 802.16m IMT-Advanced candidate proposal for a future-proof roadmap.

 

In order to support IMT-Advanced and the WiMAX Forum evolution of its technology roadmap, this year suppliers and operators have  expressed their commitment to build and trial WiMAX Release 2 based on the IEEE 802.16m standard. These suppliers and operators include Alvarion, Beceem, Cisco, Clearwire, Huawei, Intel, KT (News - Alert), Motorola, Samsung, Sequans, UQC, Yota and ZTE. In addition, the WiMAX Forum has announced that in 2010 it will finalize its WiMAX Release 2 specification in parallel with IEEE (News - Alert) 802.16m and IMT-Advanced. This will ensure that WiMAX Release 2 networks and devices will remain backward compatible with legacy WiMAX Release 1 based on IEEE 802.16e.

 

According to Ron Resnick, president and chairman of the WiMAX Forum, the WiMAX Forum membership has continued to bring WiMAX to new markets, certify devices and keep the spirit of delivering mobile Internet services to people throughout the world. It is expected that 2010 will bring new innovations to the WiMAX ecosystem with the completion of the IEEE 802.16m standard, commercialization of the global roaming program and new WiMAX Forum programs to help bring certified devices to retail channels faster.

 

The WiMAX Forum is a not-for-profit organization formed to certify and promote the compatibility and interoperability of broadband wireless products based upon the IEEE 802.16e standard. In addition to an increase in the number of networks tracked by the WiMAX Forum, most of the WiMAX networks continue to expand rapidly. For example, Yota reached 250,000 active commercial users on its Russian network. In 2010, Yota is planning to add a new GSM + Mobile WiMAX phone that supports VoIP over WiMAX.

 

Equipment vendors have also been growing rapidly in 2009. For example, Motorola recently shipped its 10,000th WiMAX Access Point and one millionth WiMAX CPE. According to Daryl Schoolar, principal analyst, wireless infrastructure at Current Analysis (News - Alert), WiMAX continued to make significant strides in 2009 even during the economic downturn. While operators continued to expand their network footprints, device form factors also improved with more functionality and eye-pleasing packaging. It is expected that in 2010, true commercial WiMAX roaming between operators supported by multi-band devices will become possible.