Chinese WiMAX Revolution to Begin in 2009

Telecom News Editorials Reports Glossary

8:00 am on April 29, 2007 | Category: Wireless Technology, Mobile Devices, WiMAX

The Chinese WiMAX market is poised for a period of rapid growth between 2009 and 2011, according to the Yankee Group, speaking at the WiMAX World Asia conference.

2009, the first year of significant WiMAX development in China, will end with 1.25 million users in the country, Yankee Group researchers predict. The market will then swell to almost seven times this number over the next two years, ending 2011 with 8.39 million users, 46% of which will use nomadic and portable varieties of the technology.

Mobile broadband will also see strong growth, accounting for 43% of WiMAX subscriptions, while fixed wireless broadband will comprise just 11% of the total market.

All this will depend on China’s Ministry of Information Industry (MII), however, which has not yet allocated WiMAX spectrum, or even created a policy regarding the next-generation wireless broadband standard. The MII will need to make allowances for the technology soon, according to a joint report by the Yankee Group and Analysys International, or China could miss out on the mobile WiMAX opportunity.

“Embracing connectivity solutions and standards such as mobile WiMAX in emerging markets like China is critical to competing in the continuously evolving global communications industry,” commented XJ Wang, the vice president of Yankee Group Asia-Pacific Research. “Without China’s participation, the global WiMAX ecosystem will not be complete.”