WiMax appears to be a hit around the world—except for the U.S., according to data released by the WiMax Forum Monday.
WiMax now covers 620 million people in 147 countries, according to the industry association. By the end of 2011, they estimate WiMAX will be available to 1 billion people, about the time LTE is expected to begin early commercialization.
The data, however, indicates that WiMax is a global effort, but lags in North America. According to WiMax Forum’s data:
- Asia Pacific: 237 million people covered and 100 network deployments.
- Central/Latin America: 113 million people covered and 109 deployments.
- Africa/Middle East: 108 million people covered with 142 deployments.
- Europe: 115 million people with 153 deployments.
- North America: 47 million people with 51 deployments.
Clearwire expects that it will have 120 million people covered by the end of 2010. A main driver of WiMAX growth in 2010 will be the increase in consumer products coming to market, including tri-band smart phones and feature phones capable of global roaming. More than 178 Mobile WiMAX Certified products achieved certification in 2009 and ten products were certified in January 2010.
In other news:
- Beceem Communications launched a dual-mode BCS500 chip. It’s capable of operating on both WiMax and Long-term Evolution (LTE) networks. Its functionality is similar to Qualcomm’s GOBI technology for HSPA and EV-DO, which allows customers to purchase a notebook and then activate it with either Sprint/Verizon or T-Mobile/AT&T 3G.
- Sequans Communications announced the release of mimoMAX 2.0, which combines a high-efficiency MIMO decoder on the downlink with dual independent transmit channels on the uplink. With two uplink channels, Sequans says mobile WiMAX devices can combine the output power of the two transmitters and immediately realize a 3 dB gain.
- Alcatel-Lucent and Sequans today announced an LTE solutions for operators of TD-LTE networks in Asia and Europe who are planning to offer services at 2.6 GHz. Alcatel-Lucent was previously selected by China Mobile to deploy China Mobile’s demonstration network at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, beginning of May, using Sequans TD-LTE chips and USB dongles at 2.3 GHz.
- The Femto Forum says 3G, WiMAX and LTE operators can manage rapidly growing mobile broadband usage while also making a healthy return on their investment — using femtocells.
- Kyocera annouced a micro base alongside Starent Networks (recently acquired by Cisco), they say weighs fewer than 26.5 pounds with a volume of 12 liters and 8 watts of transmit power. The company is also be bringing its macro base station — 39.7 pounds with a volume of 20 liters, at 211 watts or less of power — to MWC. The company also demonstrated a new prototype LTE system featuring a compact-size, all-in-one, energy-efficient unit which achieves low CAPEX / low OPEX
- Samsung announced a netbook with built in LTE, using its own Kalmia LTE modem chipset so it could squeeze the LTE capabilities into the 10.1-inch netbook size of the N150. It also comes with an integrated digital Livecam, internal microphone and headphone-out connection for video-conferencing, live messaging and VoIP telephony.
Dick Lynch, CTO for Verizon Communications, said Verizon Wireless is in the final testing phase, or “Phase 4,” of its LTE technology. Within 60 days he said he expects testing to be completed in Boston and Seattle.
But Informa expects only a handful of cautious early forays into LTE from the likes of Verizon and NTT DoCoMo towards the end of the year. Mobile LTE commercial launches in GSM-only markets will slip back to 2013-2014 as HSPA+ comes into the market,” it said in a research note.
ABI Research says much of the developing world is still rolling out GSM, GPRS, and EDGE infrastructure and mobile devices, while In-Stat says LTE base stations will only account for 20% of total base station deployments by 2013, while WCDMA will continue to be “the work horses of wireless data networks”.
