In a smart move, Clearwire has brought WiMax to the Valley in order to encourage more applications to be developed for it.
Starting with a 20 square mile area, the company plans to cover entire cities with its high-speed service and reach a user base of over a hundred million people by 2011.
Having the support of some of the top hi-tech companies in the States will be a huge advantage for WiMax. (Link)
According to Craig Barret, ex-CEO and current Chairman of the Board for Intel Corporation, Wimax technology will reach up to 50 million people by the end of this year and a billion by the year 2021.
That’s quite a figure from a source that has the muscle to change the course of technologies such as Wimax. The success of this technology depends a lot on vendor support and Intel being a major one, this could give Wimax the boost it currently needs.
According to this article, 2008 will be a make or break year for WiMAX. Though there are some unfavourable remarks about the recent WiMAX pushes in developing countries like Pakistan, it will likely be a bumper year for its adoption. No doubt, it may be facing hurdles in the US and other countries, as described below:
“WiMAX suffered a major setback when the partnership between US operator Sprint Nextel, one of the technology’s strongest advocates, and Clearwire fell apart in November,” says Andrew Parkin-White, Principal Analyst at Analysys, and co-author of Mobile Market Perspectives 2008
However, the biggest advances are likely to come from Asia. The biggest WiMAX network in the world has already been deployed and made operational in Pakistan. The next step, an even larger network, is planned for India which should bring a significant number of users on board. And for the growing middle class in these countries, the cost of equipment is not a major hurdle.
A revised report has upped the user projections for WiMAX and the new estimates put the number at 100 million by 2014. This projection is probably based on the increased number of devices with WiMax chipsets that are planned for the coming years and the availability of the service to a larger number of people.
Mobilink, Pakistan’s largest mobile operator, will be investing an additional half a billion dollars in developing its infrastructure. A large part of this will go towards the rollout of Mobilink’s WiMax service.
The giant currently boasts a subscriber base of over 29 million. With a population of 165 million against a broadband user base of less than 100,000, it is the perfect opportunity for such a large operator to get into the market.
