WiMAX market big enough for large and small players

May 30, 2007

New research shows that the early entrants into the WiMAX market—firms like Alavarion, Aperto, Redline and Airspan—will be able to profit from their jump into an unproven industry, and will not be swallowed up by larger but slower WiMAX players like Motorola Inc. and Nokia Siemens Networks.

"While the early pioneers of WiMAX should lose their market share dominance over the next couple of years, they should continue to grow their revenues, benefiting from the overall growth of the market. These vendors continue to win larger contracts with higher profile service providers," said Daryl Schoolar, an In-Stat analyst.

According to a new study by market-research firm In-Stat, smaller WiMAX competitors still command a majority of the world’s WiMAX market—which, according to In-Stat, comprises around 213,300 subscribers worldwide. And although that market control will eventually slip to larger equipment suppliers, companies like Alavarion, Aperto, Redline, and Airspan will be able to reap their fair share of WiMAX network contracts in the future.

Though still much in its infancy, WiMAX technology has gained a large amount of interest due to its support for high data speeds, and its positioning as a potential competitor to 3G cellular networks.

The WiMAX market in the Untied States gained a major boost when Sprint Nextel Corp. announced plans to build out WiMAX networks in many major cities. The carrier so far has signed equipment-supplier deals with the likes of Motorola and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.