WiMAX subscribers reach 20 million globally end-Q211

The WiMAX Forum says WiMAX technology has broken the 20 million global subscriber mark. According to Infonetics Research, WiMAX technology reached a total of 20 million subscribers at the end of Q211. This number is forecast to rise to 25 million by year-end.

Notable growth has been tracked in the US, the Indian sub-continent, and Latin America. With the levels of operator activity and device ecosystem growing, Infonetics Research forecasts WiMAX subscribers to surpass 100 million by the end of 2015.

In the first half of 2011 UQ Communications of Japan doubled its subscriber base, breaking the one million subscriber mark in June. Also in Asia Pacific, new Malaysian WiMAX operator YTL, which launched WiMAX services in November of 2010, had netted over 300,000 subscribers by June.

In the US, Clearwire and its wholesale partners continue to grow their subscriber base. Clearwire announced that it ended the second quarter of 2011 with 7.65 million total subscribers, up 365 per cent from Q210. Clearwire also increased its guidance to an expected 10 million subscribers by the end of 2011.