Subject: [NEXTEL-1] WiMAX Poised To Dominate U.S. $3.7 Billion Market for Broadband Wireless Access

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 00:15:21 -0400

April 22, 2004

WiMAX Poised To Dominate U.S. $3.7 Billion Market for Broadband Wireless
Access

The U.S. market for broadband wireless access (BWA) services based on
technologies such as WiMAX will be worth $3.7 billion by 2009. A new
study from BWCS and Senza-Fili Consulting estimates that fixed wireless
services will account for 3.6 percent of all broadband connections in
the United States by the same date. And according to Monica Paolini, the
author of WiFi, WiMAX and 802.20: The Disruptive Potential of Wireless
Broadband, WiMAX appears poised to dominate the BWA market.

“Over the last few months, we have seen a growing number of vendors and
service providers throwing their weight behind WiMAX as the leading
standard for broadband wireless access,” Paolini told TelecomWeb.
“Navini’s decision to join the WiMAX Forum after being a long-time
supporter of the rival 802.20 standard confirms the growing industry
support for WiMAX.”
Largely thanks to strong backing from Intel, WiMAX has rapidly emerged
as the
frontrunner from the raft of new generation BWA technologies.

Although handful of pre-WiMAX proprietary technologies are already being
commercially deployed by service providers in the United States,
Asia-Pacific and Europe, theBWCS/Senza-Fili study concludes that only a
standards-based approach will bring BWA to the masses.

Paolini argues that until now BWA has failed to achieve widespread
adoption due to a lack of convergence of vendors towards a single
standard. “As we have seen with WiFi, standards help to drive down
hardware costs and promote interoperability among manufacturers,” she
said.

Cost and usability will be critical factors in the highly competitive
U.S. market if emerging BWA services are to provide a realistic
alternative to competing fixed broadband (DSL and cable) services.
Established BWA services based on LMDS, MMDS and satellite have so far
failed to do this. According to market data from the FCC, between 2000
and mid-2003, BWA and satellite share of the broadband market declined
from 1.59 percent to 1.32. percent.

Despite the growing support for WiMAX, WiFi, WiMAX and 802.20, Paolini’s
report concludes that mass adoption of broadband wireless access won’t
gain momentum until 2007. The next few years will largely see
small-scale trials and proof-of-concept technology pilots for fixed
broadband access. Initial deployments will address the fixed access
market, as WiMAX PCMCIA cards or WiMAX-enabled laptops are unlikely to
ship until 2007-2008. The ratification of 802.16 Rev E will pave the way
for support of mobile access, but it is still too early to know whether
WiMAX will be able to dominate the mobile market, where solutions like
Flarion’s and IPWireless are already commercially available.

“The downside to a standards-based approach is that the process of
definition, ratification and product certification is time-consuming. In
the meantime service providers must either wait or adopt competing
technologies,” Paolini said. A good example of this is Nextel’s recent
announcement of an initial commercial deployment of Flarion’s FLASH-OFDM
solution. “Nextel was under pressure to deploy broadband wireless data
services, and Flarion had a solution already available, while 802.16 Rev
E still needs to be ratified,” Paolini said.

http://www.telecomweb.com/news/1082559047.htm
--
    "NEXTEL-1 IT'S NOT JUST NEXTEL"
  Note The New address
Subscribe to Nextel-1: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL-1

  "NEXTEL2 FOR iDEN SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS"
Subscribe to Nextel2: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL2

  "WIRELESS FORUM HOMELAND SECURITY GROUP"
     The Complete Resource for Wireless Homeland Security.
Subscribe to WFHSG:  http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/WFHSG

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark
Printer at MyInks.com.  Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada.
http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511
http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/61FxlB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

-- 
    "NEXTEL-1 IT'S NOT JUST NEXTEL"
  Note The New address 
Subscribe to Nextel-1: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL-1

  "NEXTEL2 FOR iDEN SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS"
Subscribe to Nextel2: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL2

  "WIRELESS FORUM HOMELAND SECURITY GROUP"
     The Complete Resource for Wireless Homeland Security.
Subscribe to WFHSG:  http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/WFHSG

Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEXTEL-1/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
     [email-masked]

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
     http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/