Even though the economic regression has left its mark in every layer of society and on every segment of the worldwide market, it seems that humanity's need for quick and easy connectivity to worldwide networks has only grown stronger. WiMAX broadband deployments grew by 112 during 2009 and existing deployments have expanded, such as Yota, which reached 250,000 active commercial users on its Russian network.

“Despite the global economy, WiMAX is going strong in 2009,” said Ron Resnick, president and chairman of the WiMAX Forum. “The WiMAX Forum membership has continued to bring WiMAX to new markets, certify devices and keep the spirit of delivering mobile Internet services to people throughout the world. We expect 2010 to bring new innovations to the WiMAX ecosystem with completion of the IEEE 802.16m standard, commercialization of the global roaming program and new WiMAX Forum programs to help bring certified devices to retail channels faster.”

The FDD WiMAX is directly supported by IT industry players such as Alvarion, Beceem, Cisco, Clearwire, Huawei, Intel, Motorola, Samsung, UQC and the aforementioned Yota which, in addition to the high number of active commercial users, also passed the breakeven point, with over 2,300 subscribers added per day to its WiMAX network. Clearwire also performed stupendously, reaching 550,000 subscribers and over 30 million consumers in 34 markets.

The actual number of deployments is now 519, spread across 146 countries. This growth was not only encouraged by the establishment and expansion of networks, but also by the active marketing of WiMAX-equipped machines. Intel, for instance, launched notebooks with embedded Wi-Fi/WiMAX minicards in the United States and its Kilmer Peak module with tri-band radio support for global WiMAX networks is set to become an integral part of new notebook models from leading PC manufacturers .

On the network deployment front, Alvarion now supplies 260 commercial networks in more than 100 countries and Beceem Communications shipped over three million 4G WiMAX terminal chipsets during 2009.

“In the tough economic climate of 2009, WiMAX continued to make significant strides,” said Daryl Schoolar, principal analyst, wireless infrastructure at Current Analysis. “Operators such as Packet One, Yota, and Clearwire continued to expand their network footprints. Device form factors continued to improve, with more functionality and eye-pleasing packaging. I expect in 2010 not only will network deployment stories turn into subscriber stories, but we will see true commercial WiMAX roaming between operators supported by multi-band devices.”

Early 2010 is set to yield an updated WiMAX Forum subscriber and POPs forecast. Other developments set for the next year are the certification of Mobile WiMAX 2.3 GHz products, the completion of WiMAX Forum Release 2 specification (based on the IEEE standard 802.16m) and deployment of the WiMAX Forum global roaming program.