9 million BWA/WiMAX subscribers reached in Q2 2010

MONTREAL, CANADA & MIAMI, USA: 1.8 million BWA/WiMAX subscribers were added in Q2 2010 and 2 million will be added in Q3 2010, according to the 12th issue of the 4GCounts Quarterly Report from Maravedis.

With over 600 WiMAX deployments and more than 200 devices and 60 base stations certified, the worldwide WIMAX industry accounted for over 9 million subscribers at the end of Q2 2010. Maravedis predicts 13 million BWA/WiMAX subscribers by the end of 2010. The BWA/WiMAX subscriber market share by standard was 57 percent mobile WiMAX, 25 percent fixed WiMAX and 17 percent proprietary in Q2 2010.

Maravedis also anticipates that 14 LTE networks will be operational worldwide by the end of the year 2010. "The list of operators committed to LTE has grown to 127 members as of the end of Q3 2010," said report co-author Esteban Monturus. "As several 4G spectrum auctions take place before the end of the year (especially in Europe), more operators will feel the need to set their plans regarding LTE," he added.

"Despite the hype around TD-LTE, many important questions remain unanswered. There isn't much of an ecosystem in the near term" said 4GCounts team leader Cintia Garza. "If a carrier is to deploy WiMAX now with the idea to migrate to TD-LTE in the future, a challenge emerges in how to manage the millions of WiMAX device users that it may sign up in the next 2-3 years," she added.

"WiMAX remains a viable alternative for broadband connectivity, particularly where migration to full mobility is not expectedm," said Robert Syputa, Senior Analyst and Advisor. "While the issue of migration to LTE/TD-LTE equipment is being met, operators must still consider how the subscriber device base can converted. The use of multiple-mode WiMAX/LTE is an option now worth considering," he said.

Mobile data traffic continues to be a major challenge for mobile operators. Global mobile data traffic usage increased significantly with 68 percent growth in the first half of 2010, the majority of the traffic generated comes from multimedia applications and streaming video.

This quarter's summary findings
* The residential and business WiMAX ARPU generated among operators during Q2 2010 across all regions was of $39.97 and $112.52, respectively.
* Total BWA/WiMAX revenues for the first half of 2010 totaled $1.92 billion, compared to $1.34 billion for the first half of 2009.
* Indoor modems have the largest market share accounting for over 4.2 million units or 57 percent, followed by 1.5 million USB Dongles and, 553,000 PCMCIA cards.
* Base station sectors installed base as of Q2 2010 totaled 333,323,of which 10% were deployed during the quarter.