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As per VOICE&DATA estimates, the size of WiMax market, primarily dominated by unlicensed products, has reached up to Rs 320 crore in FY 2008-09. During this period, the industry witnessed a whopping growth of over 200%. The key players in their segment are Harris Stratex Networks (HSTX) and Alvarion.

Notably, Telsima, the erstwhile top ranked player in the Indian WiMax space, has been recently acquired by Harris Stratex. While Telsima Communications India continues to exist as a wholly owned subsidiary of Harris Stratex US, Telsima Corporation US has no entity any longer.

With over 70% of market share, HSTX has emerged as the largest vendor for WiMax equipments in VOICE&DATA rankings for FY 2008-09. The company has completed its initial phase of fixed WiMax rollouts with Reliance on the 3.3 GHz band. It has also rolled out two networks in two large cities for Tata Communications on a managed service mode.

The year gone by witnessed a close to 2,50,000 subscriber additions in the WiMax space. Out of these, around 2,00,000 subscribers are with Tata and Reliance. Airtel and Aircel hold the rest of them.

Israel based Alvarion retained its second position in the rankings and grew by 300% during the last fiscal. Some of the other major players in the segment are Airspan Networks, Huawei and Aperto Networks.

The country has an installed base of 2,00,000 towers and about 2.4 mn km of optical fiber. If utilized by operators, this cellular and optical fiber infrastructure can be exploited in adopting WiMax technology to rollout broadband services on wireless media in the quickest possible time.

Industry Scorecard
The year gone by saw some interesting developments in the overall agreements and rollout plans of operators.

In the new product segment, US based Soma Networks is planning to launch compact WiMax enabled devices in FY 2009-10. The company, in partnership with BSNL, has already launched WiMax services in Ahmedabad and in parts of Gujarat this year.

So far, it has invested around Rs 150 crore in India and is planning to invest another Rs 175 crore in the FY 2009-10. It is targeting around 1 lakh customers in the circles of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Gujarat.

Motorola, which has a specific focus on nomadic WiMax, and over twenty-five commercial contracts across the globe, is leveraging the OFDM technology.

In FY 2008-09, Elitecore bagged some WiMax 16e based projects and also reinforced its presence in the European region with three new wins. Also, Freescale semiconductor introduced the industry's first multi-standard accelerator supporting emerging wireless technologies for 3G-LTE, WiMax, HSPA+ and TDD-LTE base stations.

Chennai based networking company Gemini Communications has secured an order worth Rs 67 crore from BSNL for supply, implementation and maintenance of rural mobile WiMax. The contract will cover the telecom circles of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Orissa.

Alvarion, a major player in the WiMax space, has grown by over 19% globally in FY 2008-09. It has also deployed its commercial mobile WiMax with DBC in the US. The company has won several new contracts for WiMax around the globe.

In 2009, the WiMax Forum has begun the certification of an additional frequency band at 3.5 GHz. The work for 802.16M and the next evolution of 802.16e accelerated this year, and it is now expected that the standard would complete by mid 2010. ZTE Corporation, has claimed to be the first company to get international recognition in the 3.5GHz space. It successfully passed the Wave2 Certification for its 3.5GHz WiMax.

In another development, Nortel has partnered with the Chattisgarh State Government to modernize its communications infrastructure through a high-bandwidth State Wide Area Network which will connect all the departments of the state. It is claimed to be one of the largest fixed WiMax deployments in the country for e-governance. And it will provide access to 3,000 locations in the state.

In two to three years, operators like BSNL, MTNL, Reliance Communications, Bharti Airtel, Tata Communications, Aircel, etc, who have maximum installed base of towers and optical fiber would naturally rollout broadband services on WiMax.

Aperto, builder of the scalable carrier-grade and WiMax base stations and subscriber units, has won a significant number of contracts in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and the US.

Cisco, a supplier of networking equipment and network management for the Internet, is leveraging its strengths and leadership in networking to develop mobility and wireless solutions as an integral part of network infrastructure.

C-DOT Alcatel-Lucent Research Center (CARC), a joint-venture between Alcatel-Lucent and C-DOT, Government of India has received the WiMax Forum certified seal of approval for the 2.5GHz band version of its 500 Series family of indoor customer premises equipment (CPE) reference designs.

Outlook
2009 could be the turnaround year for WiMax market in India. Operators have been awaiting auctions and spectrum allocation for the last few months. Industry research indicates that most of them are keen to launch WiMax services as soon as auctions take place. While fixed WiMax is slowly moving into a slow phase, nomadic WiMax is rapidly gaining impulse in the market.

Players like Motorola and Nokia Siemens Networks are banking heavily on mobile WiMax.

In India, allocation of spectrum is a major issue that is of concern for the future of wireless-be it WiMax or 3G. So far, the government has failed to provide any kind of roadmap to operators. Futhermore, in the current bleak environment, global capex cuts and lack of credit to finance new operators are major threats to the development of the WiMax market.

In 2008, more than fifty mobile WiMax certified products achieved certification from the WiMax Forum. The Forum estimates that by 2011, there will be more than 1,000 mobile WiMax Forum certified products across the world.

Experts also anticipates the uninterrupted demand of WiMax enabled devices in 2009-10. However, challenges related to spectrum, stability of WiMax products, time-frame and initiatives of operators will hold the key for rapid and utilitarian deployments.

Jatinder Singh
jatinders@cybermedia.co.in