WiMAX in emerging markets: the opportunity assessed

WiMAX will play a role, but it will be a far smaller one than many WiMAX players would accept today. WiMAX will fall short of the grand hope of being a mass market broadband technology in emerging markets. Ovum forecasts that overall WiMAX will account for less than 5% of the 1.5bn fixed and mobile broadband access connections in the emerging markets in 2014.

November 5th, 2009

WiMAX has so far struggled to establish a foothold in the mature markets of Europe, North America and Asia, and many view the emerging markets, with their low fixed-line penetration, as the key hunting ground for WiMAX.

However, the combination of several factors including technology evolution, cost, coverage, vendor support and service provider choices limit WiMAX’s future potential as a mass-market broadband technology in emerging markets. As a result, WiMAX will remain a niche technology, forming part of established fixed and mobile operators’ broader broadband access portfolios.

In Ovum’s newly published report ‘WiMAX in emerging markets: the opportunity assessed’, we find that the confluence of several factors including technology cost, coverage, vendor support and service provider choices will limit WiMAX to only a niche technology in the emerging markets, forming part of established fixed and mobile operators’ broader broadband access portfolios.

In this report, Ovum includes the following regions under its definition of emerging markets: Africa, emerging Asia Pacific*, emerging Europe**, South and Central America, and Middle East.

*all of Asian Pacific countries except Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Taiwan and Singapore

**all of Eastern Europe except Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia

More information about the report: www.research-store.com/igigroup/Product/wimax_i[...]

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