WiMAX spreads to more U.S. markets

Published 4 August 2009

Clearwire announced the launch of its WiMax service in ten more U.S. markets with total population of 1.6 million; company on target for presence in 80 markets with a total of 120 million potential subscribers by the end of next year

Good news for first responders: Clearwire will launch its WiMAX-based Clear 4G service in ten new U.S. markets next month, and a worldwide study suggests “strong potential” for both mobile and fixed WiMAX implementations in regions as disparate as the United States and Africa. The Intel-championed wireless broadband technology has encountered some bumps in the road lately, from good-news/bad-news reports of increasing subscribers but declining profits to a Juniper research study that pointed to a 5X spending spanking by its challenger, LTE, by 2014.

Rik Myslewski writes that today, however, WiMAX supporters should feel good about the technology’s prospects. Clearwire, the name of the joint Clearwire-Sprint WiMAX effort, announced that on the first of September it will begin Clear 4G service in ten small markets — Boise, Idaho; Bellingham, Washington; and eight markets in Texas: Abilene, Amarillo, Corpus Christi, Lubbock, Midland/Odessa, Killeen/Temple, Waco, and Wichita Falls. These are not particularly large or important markets, but taken together, they total just over 1.6 million inhabitants. This means that Clearwire remains on track in its drive to open up more and more markets to WiMAX before LTE can even gain a foothold in the United States.

Clearwire’s plans are ambitious. According to their announcement, the company plans to offer Clear 4G in 80 markets to a total of 120 million potential subscribers by the end of next year — right when LTE should just be beginning to hit its stride.

Myslewski notes that the second piece of good news for WiMAX backers is a report released last week by Infonetics Research, which says that WiMAX is poised to exploit opportunities globally in countries that either “have huge populations, or the broadband demands of the population are not being met by existing technologies.” The report specifically details opportunities for WiMAX growth in the United States, Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, the Middle East, Africa, China, India, Japan, South Korea, and Brazil.

The Infonetics report singles out India as “is the largest single-country WiMAX opportunity in the world” — China being firmly in the LTE camp. In India, the report notes, “deployments are well-underway.”

The report also calls Russia the “‘perfect storm’ for WiMAX,” citing that enormous country’s wildly dispersed population, tough-to-wire geography, lack of current broadband infrastructure, and “a population able to pay for services.”

Brazil is “potentially one of the world’s most dynamic WiMAX markets.” The Middle East is noted for its “relatively stable and affluent economies and often inferior telecommunications infrastructure.” Africa’s 80 networks in 35 countries are also experiencing growth, despite “challenges in terms of funding and low-ARPU [average revenue per user] business models.”

Myslewski points out that Infonetics recently published a separate report that saw a bright future for LTE as well, with infrastructure spending in support of that standard to reach $5 billion by 2013.

The Register has often said that WiMAX has the advantage of existing, while LTE has a broader range of supporters. At last year’s Intel Developer Forum, one Intel engineer provided an analysis that still rings true: Both technologies — which are, at core, quite similar — have a lot going for them. WiMAX may have had a head start, but both should peacefully coexist for the foreseeable future, much as CDMA and GSM do in their various flavors today.

Which brings us back to first responders. WiMAX, especially in its mobile version, will offer first response communication many advantages over existing wireless technologies. As WiMax spreads to more and more communities, the day of emergency communication availing itself of these advantages nears.