Wifi Revolution

With the $787 billion economic stimulus package, including $7.2 billion for broadband deployment in underserved communities, the telecommunications industry is expected to help stimulate new jobs, enhance high-speed Internet services and make technology more accessible in rural areas. 

 

While broadband could help stimulate the U.S. economy, WiMAX (News - Alert) (News - Alert) could be the solution for developing global countries. According to a new report from the international research and consulting firm Strategy Analytics, consumer WiMAX subscriptions in the less populated areas of Asia will increase from a few thousand now to almost 27 million by 2013.

 

Another technology that is expected to work hand-in-hand with WiMAX to bolster broadband deployments is Voice over Internet Protocol (News - Alert) (VoIP). Craig Settles, president and founder of Successful.com, an Oakland, California-based consulting firm that helps organizations develop and implement strategies for using technology to cut costs, shared his thoughts regarding the broadband stimulus package on Tuesday with Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC (News - Alert)).

 

“Broadband networks that incorporate WiMAX or other wireless access will likely result in a lot of VoIP usage. If you have fiber providing 20, 30 or more megabits per second of backhaul for the wireless component, using VoIP makes all the sense in the world,” explained Settles.

 

Strategy Analytics’ (News - Alert) report, “Broadband Beyond the Cities,” predicts that the strongest growth will come outside the major cities of Asia.

 

Subscriptions in villages and small towns are expected to grow at a rapid pace of 300 percent per year; this is three times the rate of major cities. Government policies setting out to close the rural-urban “digital divide” are one reason for this growth, but another strong main motivator is the historic lack of broadband alternatives.

 

“Big cities are the obvious place to start,” said Tom Elliott, director of Strategy Analytics EMCS and the report’s principal author. “They have high concentrations of Internet-savvy young people. But they also have a lot of competition. The real WiMAX opportunity is outside of large cities.”

 

Packet One, a Malaysian converged telecommunications, broadband and WiMAX service provider, seems to be adhering to such a strategy. The company first made deployments in Kuala Lumpur, but it has moved rapidly to launch in the two less populated states outside the capital region, Johor and Penang.

 

“Incumbent broadband suppliers and cellular operators offering High-Speed Packet Access, HSPA, alternatives are formidable competitors in the big cities,” explained David Kerr, head of Strategy Analytics Global Wireless Practice. “There’s simply a lot more un-served demand in market towns and provincial business centers.”

 

Other service providers are also catching on to the opportunities that lie in under developed areas. Orange Guinea Conakry and Ericsson announced on Wednesday that they are deploying more than 100 solar-powered base stations to connect remote parts of rural Africa.

 

With Ericsson's (News - Alert) energy-efficient base stations, a hybrid diesel-battery solution and solar panels, Orange can increase mobile coverage in rural and urban areas, while also reducing CO2 emissions. This deployment will help remote areas without an established power grid to gain access to mobile communications.

 

But the question remains: Will broadband and WiMAX be able to save the day?

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