PRESS RELEASE
| << Back | February 2010: Press Release |
Mobile WiMAX Subscriber Numbers Surpass Fixed for the First Time
4.73 million BWA/WiMAX subscribers reached in Q3 2009
MONTREAL, Canada and BARCELONA, Spain, February 16th, 2010 –4.73 million active BWA/WiMAX subscribers were reached by the end of Q3 2009, and for the first time, the number of mobile WiMAX (802.16e-2005) subscribers surpassed the number of fixed WiMAX (802.16-2004) subscribers worldwide, according to the 10th issue of the 4GCounts Quarterly Report from Maravedis.
WiMAX embedded devices are slowly growing their share of the installed base. “77% of CPEs installed in Q3 2009 were indoor CPEs with over 3.6 million units, followed by USB dongles (595,000 units or 13%) and, PCMCIA cards (244,000 units or 5%),” said Cintia Garza, co-author of the report and 4GCounts team leader.
On the LTE side, the second half of 2009 showed progress in terms of new LTE operator commitments – 51 by the end of the quarter – but also in terms of device certification scheme and the chipset development.
“Although dual mode devices including GSM, EVDO, andLTE are not yet commercially available, the first engineering samples of dual-mode chipsets were shipped in early 2009. Devices will become available in the second half of 2010 for dongles/embedded applications, but not until 2011 for handsets and lower power devices such as MiFi WiFi routers,” commented Esteban Monturus, 4GCounts analyst for Europe.
THIS QUARTER’S SUMMARY FINDINGS
- The average residential and business ARPU generated among operators during Q3 2009 across all regions was US$41 and US$121, respectively.
- BWA/WiMAX base station sectors installed as of Q3 2009 totaled 201,355 – an increase of 25% from 160,882 the previous quarter.
- 85% of WiMAX operators offer unlimited data usage compared to 41% of 3G operators. That proportion will gradually decrease as operators look for new ways to manage data consumption.
4GCounts is a unique web-based service that tracks WiMAX, LTE, 3G and 4G operator deployments and provides detailed information on the worldwide 4G ecosystem. WiMAXCounts currently profiles over 260 Operators across 92 countries. For more details, visit www.4gcounts.com
MARAVEDIS is a leading analyst firm focusing on disruptive technologies and business trends
using WiMAX, IEEE, and 3GPP/LTE. Maravedis works with system and service providers,
vendors, regulators, and institutional investors. Learn more at www.maravedis-bwa.com.
4GCounts™ is a trademark of Maravedis Inc.
Press Contact:
Emma Hancox Tel: +1 (514) 992-3662
emma@maravedis-bwa.com