Wimax subscriber base grew by 85% in 2007

According to research firm Maravedis, increased global deployments of WiMAX technology has lead to an 85% spike in subscribers and a corresponding growth in service revenue . The main findings of research are -

* 52% of the deployments still used proprietary equipment, 36% applied the 802.16-2004 standard, and 12% applied wave 1 802.16-2005 standard.
* United States, Spain and Australia were the top 3 countries in number of subscribers. In Q1 2007, they accounted for 0.5 million BWA/WiMAX subscribers.
* APAC accounted for 38% of deployments, Europe 33%, North America 17%, and CALA 13%.
WiMAX service revenues in 2006 totaled US$322 million, with recorded ARPUs of US$40.76 and US$145.54 for residential and business subscribers, respectively.
* The split by subscriber type operators was 58% residential and 42% business.
APAC operators offer higher speeds compared to other regions, yet APAC has the lowest ARPU at US$30.45 for residential.
*The price difference between WiMAX and DSL tends to be narrow, which tends to negate price as a factor for potential customers.