PARIS (WiMAX Day). During the inaugural conference this week of the WiMAX Spectrum Owners Alliance (WiSOA), which gathered the majority of WiMAX network operators from around the world for the first time, lengthy discussions amongst members confirmed the emergence of two distinct but complementary market segments for WiMAX. While industry development to date has focussed on fixed and mobile use, the market for WiMAX is now developing in two segments: the “bare essentials” of basic wireless broadband access, and the “totally awesome” personal broadband experience that will do anything, anywhere and at anytime.

A Megabyte in Your Pocket
The market for high-speed wireless broadband connectivity is accelerating at a rapid pace, and demand for increasingly sophisticated services will fuel the “totally awesome” market segment that will deliver as many multiple of megabytes that can fit in the pocket of the savvy wireless urban consumer.

Downloading music, TV and all other forms of multimedia in seconds will demand WiMAX installations of significantly high bandwidth and the utilisation of robust equipment. Likewise, the technical innovations demanded by most consumers for use in mobile handsets, PDAs and laptop computers are already in development by Intel, Samsung and Motorola. These consumer products promise to be the cornerstone of the “totally awesome” WiMAX segment.

The Next Billion
In contrast, a rapidly growing segment of the WiMAX industry has witnessed the deployment of WiMAX networks in regional and rural areas where no other access to broadband Internet is available.

WiMAX is flexible and allows for easy deployment in greenfield networks. In many rural installations, the WiSOA members noted that most rural consumers only require access to simple broadband, and thus service providers and equipment manufacturers need to consider that in order to service this segment, the cost of rural WiMAX installations must be within the reach of the average rural consumer.

The reality of the explosive growth of WiMAX networks in rural areas today echoes the statement made last year by Scott Richardson, the general manager of Intel’s Broadband Wireless Division, that “WiMAX can provide the platform for the next generation of Internet expansion, connecting the next billion Internet users”.