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Wireless broadband market 2008
04/08/08
Wireless
broadband services will create significant opportunities for revenue
growth, and cellular technologies will take the largest share,
according to the latest report from Analysys Mason.
Globally, 2.1 billion wireless broadband customers will generate
USD784 billion in service revenue by 2015. This revenue increase of
about 2400% will be underpinned by continued developments in
wireless technologies, improvements in devices and more flexible
pricing options.
HSPA will support 88% of all wireless broadband consumers at the end
of 2008, and its importance will continue. “Despite the increasing
availability of LTE and WiMAX, HSPA and HSPA+ will still support 54%
of wireless broadband users by the end of 2015,” according to Dr
Mark Heath, co-author of the report.
Developing regions will account for only 17% of wireless broadband
customers at the end of 2008, but the lack of fixed-line
infrastructure in these regions will bolster the growth of wireless
broadband services, and developing regions will account for 57% of
wireless broadband customers worldwide by the end of 2015.
Key findings of the new report include:
>> Because W-CDMA to HSPA to HSPA+ is the natural evolution path for
GSM operators, the number of HSPA and HSPA+ customers worldwide will
increase from 61 million at the end of 2008 to 1.1 billion at the
end of 2015.
>> Cellular technologies will dominate wireless broadband services,
with twenty times as many users as WiMAX by the end of 2015.
>> LTE will take off relatively slowly, but its customer base will
reach 440 million by 2015, with associated revenue of USD194
billion.
>> WiMAX will be squeezed from developed markets by fixed and
cellular broadband services and by 2015 will serve just 98 million
customers worldwide, of which 92% will be in developing regions.
WiMAX will fail to achieve a significant share of the rapidly
developing wireless broadband market, contributing only 2% of global
revenue. “By 2015, there will be twenty times as many customers for
cellular broadband services as for WiMAX,” according to Dr Alastair
Brydon, co-author of the report, “The vast majority of MNOs will not
break ranks to WiMAX, but will upgrade to LTE, resulting in over
four times more LTE users by the end of 2015.”
The new report, Wireless broadband forecasts for 2008–2015: HSPA,
HSPA+, EV-DO, LTE and WiMAX, provides detailed global forecasts for
wireless broadband subscriber numbers, revenue and ARPU for the
period 2008–2015. Forecasts are broken down by wireless broadband
technology (HSPA, HSPA+, EV-DO, LTE and WiMAX) and by region.
Nick Gibson, editor
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