WiMAX in the U.S. is growing, but certainly not at the speed with which the rest of the world is experiencing. Clearwire, the U.S. primary privader of WiMAX, is doing its best to boost interest statewide, however, the explosive growth with Asia Pacific and European markets dwarfs the efforts the U.S. is making to integrate this technology across the country. Below are statistics compiled by the WiMAX Forum:
- Asia Pacific: 237 million people covered by 100 network deployments
- Europe: 115 million people covered by 153 network deployments
- Central/Latin America: 113 million people covered 109 network deployments
- Africa/Middle East: 108 million people covered by 142 network deployments
- North America: 47 million people covered by 51 network deployments
Clearwire states that it intends to blanket areas encompassing 120 million people with WiMAX by the end of 2010. If they can do this, Clearwire will have a large advantage and marketshare over its competitor, Verizon Wireless. Verizon is only beginning to roll out LTE commercially on a small scale. We should see things becoming competitively interesting between the two giants in about a year. (www.clearwire.com, www.verizonwireless.com)
Clearwire CEO Bill Morrow at 4G World, Chicago
Clearwire Online Speed Test
Tony Melone, Chief Technology Officer, Verizon Wireless at LTE Americas 2009
Publised on: Feb 21 2010
