Mobile Wimax 802.16e will amass 80 million mobile
subscribers globally by 2013, according to a paper published by
Juniper Research.
Mobile Wimax will represent a single-digit proportion of the
global mobile broadband base by 2013, said the report.
"This will be a tremendous achievement for this new technology
platform which has recently been boosted by the ITU's endorsement
of it as an IMT2000 specification," said the author Howard
Wilcox.
The twin challenges are for suppliers to produce the right
devices at the right time and price, and for Mobile Wimax service
providers to differentiate their offerings from existing mobile
operators, said Wilcox.
Wimax technology got a boost
last month when the International Telecommunications Union
approved the wireless data transmission system as a 3G
standard.
This will allow operators to provide Wimax in spectrums
allocated for 3G phone networks, which use competing cellular
technology, and provides a path for Wimax to mature and
increase in use, said industry body the Wimax Forum.