« Gateway APs to Appear in April | Main | Radio France's Wi-Fi Day in Paris (Photos) »

March 12, 2004

Fixed Wireless is Growing

By Nancy Gohring

Research firm Maravedis expects the sub-11 GHz fixed broadband wireless market to grow from $430 million in 2003 to $1.6 billion by the end of 2008: While researcher forecasts sometimes sound like wild guesses, this report has some interesting figures about the existing market for broadband wireless that reveal significant growth. This growth comes even before a standard is in place. For example, the study found 10,000 sub-11 GHz base stations and 1.2 million client devices installed worldwide, providing at least 256 Kbps service. Access makes up the majority of applications, accounting for 84 percent of installations with backhaul making up the rest. The researchers expect backhaul to increase to 30 percent of the market by 2008.

The study somewhat states the obvious in its finding that Intel is expected to dominate shipments of 802.16e gear. Intel is one of the primary supporters of that standard and the WiMax Forum, the association backing the standard.

Fixed broadband wireless has always been a niche market but the use of it seems to be growing, possibly partly due to the general growing awareness of wireless because of Wi-Fi’s popularity. Once WiMax gear is on the market and assuming operators use it, fixed broadband wireless has a good chance of becoming more popular than ever before.

Posted by nancyg at March 12, 2004 9:56 AM

Categories: WiMAX

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://db.isbn.nu/mt3/mt-tb.pl/1649

Comments