Excitement Just Starts

WiMAX, as a new broadband wireless access technology, is finally getting momentum in Asia/Pacific region. Korea leads the world with home-grown WiBro technology (very similar to Mobile WiMAX), while Australia has one of the earliest adoption for Fixed WiMAX.

With large number of licenses issued by telecom regulators, WiMAX now becomes an important investment area in the telecom field.

Pakistans Wateen telecom has one of the largest Mobile WiMAX networks in emerging markets worth $200 million. Leading operators in India have lined out their plans to invest billions of dollars on WiMAX for better broadband coverage. Operators in island country Indonesia are expecting licenses in mid 2008.

With expectation of new deployments in large scale, Asia/Pacific region is viewed as the most exciting place for WiMAX take-up and the game has just started.

Springboard Research estimates the total WiMAX services market at US$58 million in 2007, which will grow at a CAGR of 148% to reach US$5,456 million in 2012. Total subscribers will grow from 230,000 in 2007 to 33.9 million in 2012.