ABI Research Foresees a Healthy Future for WiMAX

The scenario for the WiMAX market has not been too encouraging in the recent economic recession. Both the electronic and print media outlets have been offering stories about major players such as Alcatel-Lucent and Nortel stopping their WiMAX plans due to weak demand. But ABI Research says that this is not the whole story and WiMAX in fact set to grow.
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In a recently held press conference, Ben Verwaayen, Alcatel-Lucent's CEO stated that WiMAX was not a viable mobile wireless option when faced with LTE technology. Also, Nortel has shut down its mobile WiMAX division amidst its own financial turmoil and the recession.

However, ABI explains that Nortel quit the mobile WiMAX market because it failed to become competitive and win any important business. As forAlcatel-Lucent, even though the company does not think too highly of WiMAX when it comes to mobile wireless, it may still use WiMAX as a wireless broadband solution.

“Contrary to the popular view, Alcatel-Lucent is still quite involved with mobile WiMAX,” says ABI Research principal analyst Philip Solis. “The company has had its 3.5 GHz products certified by theWiMAX Forum; its ‘ng Connect’ program, includes mobile WiMAX; and it is working with Intel on an interoperability program for mobile WiMAX devices. In addition, Alcatel-Lucent ranks first in 2008 market share for mobile WiMAX base station deployments.”

ABI sees many growth opportunities for WiMAX beyond traditional mobile operator networks. This includes data-centric deployments in both developed and developing regions. So, according to ABI, even though WiMAX may witness a modest growth in 2009, the technology may pick up in 2010 and may prove naysayers wrong.

In another report published recently, ABI stated that the handset based navigation field poised for growth, despite the economic slowdown. The report stated that this sector has been attracting new players such as TomTom and Garmin, who are looking to cash in on the renewed interests in this sector.

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BY Raju Shanbhag, TMCnet Contributing Editor
Source：TMCnet

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