WiMAX US growth stalls, while overseas growth flourishes

WiMAX (aka 4G) is slowly but surely spreading itself across the United States. Clearwire, the company behind the growth plans to reach at least 120 million people by the end of  2010. If this figure is reached, Clearwire would be one step ahead of the competition, which is mainly Verizon Wireless. But while this does sound promising, worldwide growth is a million times better, with Europe leading the way as seen with the map above. In short the numbers compiled by the WiMAX Forum reveal what’s going on here:

• Asia Pacific: 237 million people covered by 100 network deployments
• Europe: 115 million people covered by 153 network deployments
• Central/Latin America: 113 million people covered 109 network deployments
• Africa/Middle East: 108 million people covered by 142 network deployments
• North America: 47 million people covered by 51 network deployments

Still, I’d say you’d have to wait until 2011 (more waiting, huh?) to see who wins this 4G battle. Anyway, why should you care now, there aren’t really any 4G handsets yet! I’m looking at you for now, HTC Supersonic.

Read