USA - Broadband Market - Wireless Broadband

Synopsis

The wireless broadband market continued to witness rapid developments throughout 2008. Whilst WiFi and WiMAX asserted themselves as the major wireless broadband technologies, the competitive threat from Long Term Evolution became more apparent as specifications for standardisation of the new technology neared completion at end-2008. WiFi hotspots continued to open across the country, becoming commonplace in airports, cafes, offices and homes. Although several high profile municipal WiFi projects experienced difficulties, the number of cities and towns with WiFi networks continued to grow. WiMAX received a boost with the ITU’s decision to certify it as a 3G technology, thereby strengthening its position against other cellular 3G services such as HSDPA. In October 2008 Sprint Nextel and Clearwire officially launched their WiMAX network in Baltimore, Maryland. Whilst WiMAX is on the verge of a substantial nationwide deployment, it is likely that LTE will become the leading wireless broadband technology by 2012.

Table of Contents

• 1. Synopsis
  
• 2. Wireless broadband market
  
  • 2.1 Overview
    
  • 2.2 700MHz auction
    
  • 2.3 Analysis – 2007 - 2008
    
  • 2.4 White Space Spectrum
    
• 3. WiFi
  
  • 3.1 WiFi statistics
    
  • 3.2 Major WiFi hotspot providers
    
  • 3.3 Municipal WiFi
    
    • 3.3.1 Overview
      
    • 3.3.2 Muni WiFi analysis – 2007 - 2008
      
  • 3.4 WiFi and cellular convergence
    
  • 3.5 WiFi standards and certification
    
• 4. WiMAX
  
  • 4.1 WiMAX market overview
    
  • 4.2 WiMAX Forum
    
  • 4.3 WiMAX and WiFi
    
  • 4.4 WiMAX versus competing 3G and 4G technology
    
    • 4.4.1 3G/HSDPA
      
    • 4.4.2 Long-term evolution (LTE)
      
• 5. Satellite broadband
  
• 6. Related reports
  

• Table 1 – Top 10 countries – public WiFi hotspots – 2009
• Table 2 – Top 10 US cities – WIFI hotspots – 2009

• Exhibit 1 – Municipal WiFi case-study – City of Minneapolis
• Exhibit 2 – IEEE WiFi standards – January 2009
• Exhibit 3 – Sprint Nextel’s and Clearwire’s WiMAX developments