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August 09, 2010

4GWE WIMAX to Dominate Mobile Services Despite Commercial Challenges

By Mini Swamy
TMCnet Contributor

Infonetics Research (News - Alert) provides a variety of services to address the supply and demand sides of the data networking and telecom market, with strong quantitative and qualitative analysis.

It released excerpts from the global survey that it conducted as part of its continuous research services- a series of WIMAX – related analyst notes and surveys and revealed that the dynamic WIMAX market had a very bright future for mobility services and VoIP.

The research firm surveyed purchase decision-makers at 25 WiMAX (News - Alert)-only operators, fixed-line incumbents, competitive fixed-line providers, and mobile operators in order to get a strategic overview of WIMAX operators.

Results of the survey provides information about how and why WiMAX networks are being deployed, the business model that is being adopted, what kind of markets are targeted, and projection of subscriber and revenue numbers between 2010-2012.

Highlights of select WIMAX strategies revealed that currently fixed or nomadic basic broadband services dominated the market, but service providers were expected to offer diversified services by 2012.

Wireless DSL solution appeared to be globally popular in most regions and even in developed countries such as the U.S., opportunities and potential for WIMAX seem to be rather positive. Ar least 64 percent of service provider respondents were expected to offer full mobility by 2012 and this represented an increase from the 24 percent Infonetics survey.

The period is expected to be dominated by smartphones, with USB dongles dominating the nomadic mobile services initially.

Surprisingly, the top commercial challenges would include WIMAX enabled mobile devices, marketing and positioning of its services, building retail and distribution channels, and providing SLAs for enterprise customers and defining a pricing model for a low ARPU market.

All this indicates that the WIMAX industry is geared up for a richer service environment in the future in spite of the challenges it faces in terms of range limitations and difficulty in building low -ARPU models for developing countries.

Richard Webb, directing analyst for WIMAX, microwave, and mobile devices, Infonetics research said that WIMAX would have to address all the challenges if it is to live to its full potential of a future long-term broadband technology.

Details regarding the related research and upcoming research can be had at the Infonetics Portal.

Infonetics Research is an international market research and consulting firm serving the communications industry since 1990. A leader in defining and tracking emerging and established technologies in all world regions, Infonetics helps clients plan, strategize, and compete more effectively.


Mini Swamy is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Erin Monda


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