WiMAX Deployments Go Global with 519 in 146 Countries

In spite of the financial downturn which has impacted telecom investments, wireless broadband Internet deployments based upon WiMAX have reached 519 in 146 countries, including 95 WiMAX networks deployed by 2G mobile operators. Of the 519 WiMAX deployments, 112 were added in 2009. The WiMAX ecosystem advanced certification activity with 86 products receiving WiMAX Forum Certified status this year.

On the regulatory front, FDD WiMAX was accepted into the IMT-2000 family of standards and more than 50 companies endorsed the IEEE 802.16m IMT-Advanced candidate proposal for a future-proof roadmap.

To support IMT-Advanced and the WiMAX Forum evolution of its technology roadmap, leading suppliers and operators this year expressed their commitment to build and trial WiMAX Release 2 based on the IEEE 802.16m standard. These ecosystem backers included Alvarion, Beceem, Cisco, Clearwire, Huawei, Intel, KT, Motorola, Samsung, Sequans, UQC, Yota and ZTE. The WiMAX Forum also announced that in 2010 it will finalize its WiMAX Release 2 specification in parallel with IEEE 802.16m and IMT-Advanced, ensuring that WiMAX Release 2 networks and devices will remain backward compatible with legacy WiMAX Release 1 based on IEEE 802.16e.

"Despite the global economy, WiMAX is going strong in 2009," said Ron Resnick, president and chairman of the WiMAX Forum. "The WiMAX Forum membership has continued to bring WiMAX to new markets, certify devices and keep the spirit of delivering mobile Internet services to people throughout the world. We expect 2010 to bring new innovations to the WiMAX ecosystem with completion of the IEEE 802.16m standard, commercialization of the global roaming program and new WiMAX Forum programs to help bring certified devices to retail channels faster."