More WiMAX Community Stories

Broadband wireless and WiMAX (News - Alert) subscribers worldwide reached 2.68 million in the third quarter of 2008, a 13 percent growth rate compared to the first quarter of 2008, and a 91 percent increase over the third quarter of 2007, according to Maravedis (News - Alert). Some might point to a slower rate of growth compared to past recent quarters.

 

Global service revenue growth is losing pace as WiMAX operators experience average revenue per user stagnation and a slowing, or even decline, in WiMAX adoption, Maravedis says. In the third quarter 2008, monthly residential ARPU was $46.45 and business customer ARPU was $125.48.

 

In the second quarter of 2008, residential ARPU was $46.70 and business ARPU was $135.30. 

 

“These are very difficult times for mobile WiMAX as both vendors such as Telsima and leading WiMAX operators such as Tata are struggling to fund their WiMAX plans", says Adlane Fellah, CEO and Founder of Maravedis. “Further, in the PR battle, mobile WiMAX has been losing momentum in favor of LTE (News - Alert) as it becomes clear that LTE will become the dominant 4G technology among Tier One mobile operators worldwide,” he added.

 

The average subscriber base per deployment remains very modest at 15,000 and contributes to the lack of volumes facing the emerging device ecosystem, Maravedis says.

 

Clearwire (News - Alert) USA continues to be the top operator in terms of the number of subscribers, with 469,000 subscribers in the United States at the end of the third quarter 2008, an increase of 1.54 percent compared with 461,850 subscribers reported in the second quarter of 2008.

 

Some 64 percent of WiMAX subscribers are residential and 36 percent are business users, Maravedis says.

 

In the third quarter 2008 fixed broadband and WiMAX service revenues were $492 million, up 15 percent from the previous quarter.

 

The total number of customer terminals deployed as of September 2008 reached 2.68 million units, up 15 percent from the 2.33 million tracked in June 2008.

 

A total of 121,269 base station sectors were deployed as of the third quarter of 2008, a 37 percent increase from the previous quarter.