Wimax: commercial deployments rising

Commercial deployments of Wimax networks by operators have overtaken deployments of trial-only networks, according to research consultancy Maravedis.

For the Q3 of 2007, 58% of Wimax networks worldwide are now being deployed for commercial use, while only 18% remain trial-only.

Sixteen per cent of operators own Wimax spectrum but are doing nothing with it, and 8% of operators are planning a Wimax launch.

Although these announcements are good news for the Wimax standard, they will not change businesses' attitude to Wimax overnight, said Ian Fogg, senior broadband analyst at Jupiter Research.

Wimax network operators will need to invest in extending the range of their network coverage if they want more people to use their services. However, Fogg said this was unlikely to happen until more client devices become available.