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WiMAX Potential Remains Limited in Latin America, Says Signal Telecom

5:30 am on September 26, 2008 | Category: Business, Internet, WiMAX, Wireless Technology

Despite all the great expectations for WiMAX, a new report by Signals Telecom Consulting predicts that the technology will hold a modest 5% of the Latin American broadband market in 2013.

Signals analysts were also skeptical of the spectacular bandwidth claims made by WiMAX advocates, noting that 57% of WiMAX deployments in Latin America currently offer less than 1-Mbps connection speeds (considerably slower than a standard DSL connection).

“The high cost of handsets together with the high number of antennas needed to provide effective coverage in urban areas makes WiMAX a niche technology that can only be successful if operators complement their wireless broadband services offerings with value added services, wireless backhaul, voice and eventually video,” according to Signals president, Jose F. Otero.

“As such, the launch of WiMAX services focused on the mass market that do not include any type of additional service packaging have extremely limited growth possibilities in Latin America,” Otero concluded.

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