WiMax to rack up '54 million subscribers by 2012'

WiMax is set to rack up 54 million subscribers worldwide within five years - but only if it can capitalise on emerging markets.

A report from consultancy Senza Fili Consulting - WiMax: Ambitions and Reality - predicts the combined total of fixed, mobile and fixed, and mobile WiMax will amount to 54 million users by 2012.

According to the consultancy the best prospects for the tech are tied to the rollout of mobile services - and it predicts that by 2012 61 per cent of subscribers will use WiMax for mobile access.

Monica Paolini, author of the report, said the recent inclusion of WiMax as an IMT-2000 (International Mobile Telecommunications 2000) technology will enable mobile operators to deploy it more widely.

But the mobile market will take longer than fixed to grow because most mobile operators do not yet need a data-only wireless network to complement their 3G networks.

While 3G and wi-fi have managed to co-exist up to now the future impact of WiMax on mobile operators' 3G networks is uncertain.

But according to the report in the next five years WiMax will become a mature technology for mobile broadband access.