Who’s got WiMax?
Here’s a cool map that gives you some idea.
Meanwhile, the WiMax Forum advocacy group recently reported that service providers now offer networks covering more than 620 million people in 147 countries and “are on pace to surpass the already forecasted 800 million POPs by end of 2010” and pass 1 billion by the end of next year, “which is approximately the time competitive 4G technologies are expected to begin early commercialization.”
The technology’s backers say these trends indicate strong momentum for their mobile broadband ecosystem. However, of the five regions for which it reported statistics, North America was the laggard.
The group said Asia Pacific leads with more than 237 million people covered in 100 network deployments; Central/Latin America has reached 113 million POPs and 109 deployments; Africa/Middle East covers 108 million POPs with 142 deployments; and Europe covers 115 million people with 153 deployments.
North American coverage is at 47 million POPS with 51 deployments.
But the group noted that “Clearwire plans to continue rolling out our 4G network to additional markets in 2010 with the launch of service in several large metro areas, including New York, Houston and the San Francisco Bay area, ultimately reaching up to 120 million people by the end of 2010,” according to d Ali Tabassi, senior vice president of global ecosystem and standards for Clearwire and a board member of the WiMax Forum.
The group also said current projections don’t account for potential growth WiMax will experience once spectrum is auctioned in India and networks are deployed in the Philippines as well as Indonesia.