Signals Telecom Consulting has published a report which expects that in spite of the tremendous speed potential claimed by WiMAX, 57% of corresponding offerings fall below the 1 Mbps mark in Latin America. As of 3Q08, the maximum speed offered is 4 Mbps (Embratel – Brazil).

“A large portion of the spectrum licenses that have been awarded in the region are not currently being used either for speculative reasons or because experiences with WLL technologies have been disappointing. The majority of commercial WiMAX operations are focused on the 3.5 GHz band and, to a lesser degree, on the 2.5 GHz band,” comments Carlos Blanco, Markets Research Director for Signals Telecom Consulting and report author.

“The high cost of handsets together with the high number of antennas needed to provide effective coverage in urban areas makes WiMAX a niche technology that can only be successful if operators complement their wireless broadband services offerings with value added services, wireless backhaul, voice and eventually video. As such, the launch of WiMAX services focused on the mass market that do not include any type of additional service packaging have extremely limited growth possibilities in Latin America. This has been clearly demonstrated via the Orbitel experience with this technology in Colombia,” concludes José F. Otero, President of Signals Telecom Consulting.

As of 3Q08, there are a total of 35 operators that either offer wireless broadband services via a variety of WiMAX technologies or have expressed their intention to migrate their networks over to 802.16 technologies in the middle term.

Source:cellular-news