BWA/WiMAX Worldwide Subscriber Base Reaches 1,728,000 in Q4 2007

ARTICLE

BWA/WiMAX Worldwide Subscriber Base Reaches 1,728,000 in Q4 2007

By Adlane Fellah, CEO and founder
Contact the author at afellah@maravedis-bwa.com

Maravedis is now tracking 250 BWA and WiMAX operators worldwide on a weekly base. We released our latest industry statistics last week noticed that the global BWA/WiMAX subscriber base increased by 350,000 in the fourth quarter of 2007, reaching a total of 1,728,000 subscribers..

This figure covers 95% of current deployments and on-going trials worldwide. The networks are growing organically, that is, slowly covering underserved areas and building market presence in their territories. New operators such as Wateen in Pakistan have finally launched service and are experiencing rapid growth, while other “established” Greenfield operators such as Unwired Australia are struggling to add more subscribers in a rapidly changing telecom environment.

Even with an increase of more than 20% in WiMAX subscribers in the last quarter of 2007, operators are still waiting for the tipping point that will lead to acceleration of WiMAX adoption and deployments. The key factors mainly centre on: certification of mobile WiMAX equipment; a reduction in CPE pricing; and the emergence of a device ecosystem.

Many operators are holding back their network expansion pending the mobile WiMAX 802.16e equipment certification, which was postponed to the second half of 2008. Mobile WiMAX is a key enabler of a wider range of value-added services and product flexibility.

With a residential monthly ARPU of US$ 46.32 and business ARPU of US$143.85, this subscriber base has generated an estimated US$ 326 million of service revenues in Q4 2007, and a total US$ 1 billion for 2007. We expect the introduction of major network deployments for mobile WiMAX, combined with lower subscriber unit pricing, will accelerate subscriber growth into 2009.

There continues to be more residential subscribers than business subscribers, despite operator tendency to focus on business offerings. 64% of the subscriber base is residential, versus 36% business.

Approximately 61% of the operators covered by WiMAXCounts™ have commercially launched BWA/WiMAX services; 25% are setting up the network or trialing WiMAX; and the remaining 14% are either “sitting on their spectrum” (12%) or have returned/lost the right to use the spectrum (2%). Most regions follow this average except Asia Pacific, which shows 48% of operators with launched networks; and North America at the other extreme, showing that 87% of operators have launched BWA/WiMAX networks.

APAC shows a significant improvement compared to Q3 2007 when we recorded only 34% of operators having commercially launched. Operators that went from testing WiMAX in Q3 to launches in Q4 include Broadcast Communications (New Zealand), Dialog Broadband Networks (Sri Lanka), Sify (India), and Yozan (Japan). Furthermore, operators such as CitiLink (Cambodia), Reliance (India), and Wired Country (New Zealand) converted idle spectrum into commercial launches of WiMAX in Q4 2007.
We anticipate this trend to continue over the course of 2008, as governments and their regulatory bodies realize the economic and social benefits of introducing mobile
BWA/WiMAX. The success stories of mobile BWA/WiMAX leading countries will also influence laggard countries to liberate spectrum policy and stimulate mobile BWA/WiMAX investments.

Q4 2007 WiMAX KEY STATISTICS

Over 800,000 subscribers were using WiMAX Forum Certified technology at year-end 2007
Out of all CPEs deployed, 29% were based on 802.16-2004, 11.7% were based on 802.16-2005, 55% were based on proprietary technologies, and 3.8% remained undisclosed.
The Middle East and Africa region has the highest residential ARPU at US$50.04, while offering significantly lower speeds than other regions.
The average number of subscribers per operator was 12,098 for Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) and 5,407 for Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs) in Q4 2007.
WiMAX service revenues equated to US$1 billion in 2007, with recorded Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) of US$46.30 for residential and US$144.09 for business subscribers.

LIMITED TIME OFFER (until June 12, 2008)
To celebrate its 1000 end-users milestone, Maravedis is offering a special promotion to operators and WiMAX Forum members. Visit www.wimaxcounts.com for further details.

WiMAXCounts is the only WiMAX Operator Tracking online service. With over 250 WiMAX operator profiles updated weekly, WiMAXCounts is the only service that provides the WiMAX industry with hard data and figures.

For more information you can contact the author. afellah@maravedis-bwa.com