WiMAX subscribers reach 17.25 million worldwide in Q111

3.7 million new WiMAX subscribers were added in Q410, and 5.5 million will be added in 2011, according to the latest quarterly report from Maravedis. The subscriber base for WiMAX and LTE reached 17.25 million and 320,000 respectively at the end of March 2011.

The WiMAX subscriber increase represents a 32.7 per cent rise quarter over quarter, from 13 million reported at the end of Q410.

Maravedis anticipates that 59 FDD-LTE and three LTE TDD networks will be operational worldwide by the end of 2011. "There will be 305 million LTE subscribers by 2016, of which 14 per cent, or 44 million, will be TD-LTE users and the rest (86 per cent, or 261 million) will be FDD-LTE," said Esteban Monturus, co-author of the report.

TD-LTE has gained global momentum and attracted attention to TDD spectrum. Maravedis anticipates that commercial TD-LTE networks could begin in more than 10 countries or areas in 2011-2012, even ahead of China Mobile’s deployment

On the regulatory side, additional spectrum made available for 4G has seen much more progress in GSM refarming than in the digital dividend initiative. The latter is still many years away from full availability.