WiMAX Forum Counts 112 WiMAX Networks Deployed in 2009

Wireless broadband Internet deployments based upon WiMAX have reached 519 in 146 countries, according to new figures released by the WiMAX Forum. This includes 95 WiMAX networks deployed by 2G mobile operators. Of the 519 WiMAX deployments, 112 were added in 2009. The WiMAX ecosystem advanced certification activity with 86 products receiving WiMAX Forum Certified status this year.


"Despite the global economy, WiMAX is going strong in 2009," said 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. We expect 2010 to bring new innovations to the WiMAX ecosystem with 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."


On the regulatory front, 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.


To support IMT-Advanced and the WiMAX Forum evolution of its technology roadmap, leading suppliers and operators this year expressed their commitment to build and trial WiMAX Release 2 based on the IEEE 802.16m standard. These ecosystem backers included Alvarion, Beceem, Cisco, Clearwire, Huawei, Intel, KT, Motorola, Samsung, Sequans, UQC, Yota and ZTE. The WiMAX Forum also announced that in 2010 it will finalize its WiMAX Release 2 specification in parallel with IEEE 802.16m and IMT-Advanced, ensuring that WiMAX Release 2 networks and devices will remain backward compatible with legacy WiMAX Release 1 based on IEEE 802.16e.


Some other facts highlighted by the Forum:

• Yota has reached 250,000 active commercial users on its Russian network and has passed the breakeven point, thanks to more than 2,300 subscribers added per day to its WiMAX network.

Clearwire has reached more than 555,000 subscribers; its network covers more than 30 million consumers in 34 markets and has an ARPU of nearly $40.

Malaysia's Packet One Networks, which celebrated its first anniversary of operations this year, has reached 130,000 subscribers.

KT covers more than half of the Korean population, and UQ Communications now covers more than half of Japan's population, offering services to consumers via more than 20 MVNO partners.

Motorola recently announced it shipped its 10,000th WiMAX Access Point and one millionth WiMAX CPE.

In 2008, Huawei achieved a 200 percent increase in WiMAX revenue and expects to achieve that same level of growth by the close of 2009.

Alvarion now supplies more than 260 commercial network deployments in more than 100 countries.

Next year, the WiMAX Forum will publish an updated WiMAX Forum subscriber and POPs forecast in early 2010; begin certification of Mobile WiMAX 2.3 GHz products; launch an Open Retail Certification Program.

The Forum is also planning on completing the WiMAX Forum Release 2 specs based on the new IEEE standard 802.16m. Commercialization and deployment of the WiMAX Forum global roaming program is also expected to occur.

Three WiMAX Forum Congress Series Events are planned in 2010, including Asia Congress in April, Global Congress in June and Americas Congress in December 2010 .

http://www.wimaxforum.org