WiMAX to Represent Significant Long Term Opportunity for Fixed and Mobile IP Applications . Despite Numerous Hurdles, WiMAX Market to Reach 12.4 Milli

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Northern Sky Research: WiMAX will enable the wireless industry to benefit from a number of factors inherent to any standards-based market, including: lower costs, faster innovation, interoperability, more user choice and effective competition among vendors. These advantages have caused the carrier and service provider community to take notice and start to plan for fixed and mobile/nomadic WiMAX network deployments over the next five years. While WiMAX has enormous potential to offer a global standardized broadband wireless platform, the market will face several hurdles in the near term, some of which include a solid migration path to 802.16e, spectrum allocation, requirements for indoor antennas and initial high costs. These and many more hurdles must be satisfied in order for growth projections to be met. Early struggles in the space will, however, likely subside over time and WiMAX will post significant gains over the next 3-5 years. The market for 802.16d solutions to be located primarily in developing regions and niche applications in developed markets. The 802.16d market to reach 4.4 million subs by 2010, but the market is expected to level off with the introduction of 802.16e. With an expected launch in 2007, 802.16e solutions will likely post aggressive gains and reach approximately 8 million subs by 2010. Most of this base is expected in developed regions, as users utilize mobile 802.16e WiMAX in laptops, PDAs and eventually mobile phones.

The viability of the emerging 801.16 WiMAX standard, as the likely performance characteristics of WiMAX make the standard quite promising for many new deployment models. But a number of hurdles must be cleared before WiMAX can experience widespread growth. Hype surrounding the eventual launch of WiMAX solutions is one of the most significant barriers to overcome, as incumbents and service providers will soon find out that actual WiMAX performance may not meet early vendor claims.

WiMAX- Sorting Through the Hype: A Realistic Assessment of WiMAX Growth Potential (2005-2010) Publ 20050601 Wimax?