PRESS RELEASE
1.45 Million BWA/WiMAX Subscribers Added in 2008
Maravedis Releases 7th Issue of 4GCounts Quarterly Report
MONTREAL, Canada, April 15, 2009 –Worldwide, approximately 1.45 million BWA/WiMAX
subscribers were added during 2008, while the WCDMA subscriber base increased by more
than 90 million. The average quarter-over-quarter subscriber growth rate in 2008 was 21.5%,
according to the 7th issue of the 4GCounts Quarterly Report from Maravedis
(http://www.maravedis-bwa.com).
“Total BWA/WiMAX revenues for 2008 totaled US$1.82 billion, compared US$898.78 million in
2007 – a 102% annual revenue increase despite the economic downturn that began affecting
operator revenues in Q3 2008,” noted Maravedis CEO and founder Adlane Fellah.
“2008 was a difficult year for most WiMAX vendors, which accelerated both market
consolidation and niche specialization in order to survive the downturn,” said Cintia Garza, coauthor
of the report and 4GCounts team leader. “Because many operators are planning to
deploy mobile WiMAX equipment, devices based on 802.16-2004 experienced a slow down,” she added.
While LTE networks are yet to become commercial, vendors have stepped up availability of the
prerequisite network planning tools, test and measurement systems; LTE and multi-mode ICs
and devices are scheduled to become available later in 2009. Progress has been made both on
3G-LTE systems and on the next generation LTE-Advanced version. The impact of the
economy on life-cycle extension of 3G and commercial momentum for LTE is of key interest,” commented Robert Syputa, partner and senior analyst.
“Government and service industries are expected to be the top spenders on vertical
applications. As WiMAX operators roll out their networks worldwide, increased availability of
coverage will accelerate adoption of vertical services,” noted Basharat Ashai, co-author of the
report.
THIS QUARTER’S SUMMARY FINDINGS
- The Middle East and Africa were the fastest growing regions for WiMAX in 2008.
- Operators across all regions generated residential and business ARPUs of US$43.8
and US$122 respectively.
- The number of base station sectors deployed during Q4 2008 totaled 138,162; an
increase of 14% from 121,269 the previous quarter.
- Operators have faced various problems when deploying their base stations, including a
lack of capacity.
- One of the largest deployments we expect in terms of numbers of CPEs and base
stations sectors installed is BSNL (India).
4GCounts is a unique web-based service tracking 4G operator deployments and providing
detailed information on the worldwide 4G ecosystem. 4GCounts currently profiles over 200
operators across 92 countries.
MARAVEDIS is a leading analyst firm focusing on disruptive technologies including smart
networks using WiMAX, IEEE, and 3GPP/LTE. Maravedis works with system and service
providers, vendors, regulators, and institutional investors.
Press Contact:
Emma Hancox, Marketing Director, Maravedis Inc.
emma@maravedis-bwa.com
Phone: +1 514 992-3662
