Taipei, Nov. 19, 2007 (CENS)--With companies of worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) network to start building related hardware next year, the new network technology is expected to bring huge business potential worth US$25 billion worldwide in next five years, according to Market Intelligence Center (MIC), a market survey institute for the sector making ICT (information and communication technology) products.

Also, Topology Research Institute (TRI) opined that market demand for mobile WiMAX network will start growing in 2008 and sharply increase in 2009. In 2011, registered users of the network are estimated at 30 million persons all around the world.

MIC noted that starting this year through 2010, the U.S. plans to invest US$5 billion, the largest amount in the world, in constructing WiMAX network, with Taiwan and Korea to respectively pour US$1 billion and US$900 million in that. After bidding for WiMAX licenses, bid winners in Japan are also expected to funnel a total of US$3.8 billion into building WiMAX.

In fact, development of WiMAX technology is different among developed and emerging countries, with the U.S. tending to focus on integrated products based on the technology, and India, the Middle East and Pakistan on fixed WiMAX initially to make up their penetration rates of broadband network.

Shipment of WiMAX chips are expected to sharply increase in the second half of 2008, and will further shoot up in 2009. At the moment, fixed WiMAX is mainstream service among WiMAX users; however, registered users for mobile WiMAX will amount to about four million in 2008, and surge to 30 million in 2011, according to MIC.

Taiwanese network device suppliers, including Zyxel Communications Corp., Tecom Co., Microelectronics Technology Inc., Gemtek Technology Co. and Alpha Networks Inc., have ventured into development of station bases in recent years, with customer premises equipment (CPE) remaining the mainstream products.

TRI predicted Accton Technology Corp., which has already started mass production of WiMAX-based network cards in this June, to post annual shipment of 50,000 units for this year and to challenge 300,000 units for next year; Cameo Communications Inc. to score between 50,000 and 100,000 units of the products in 2008; Quanta Microsystems Inc. up to 300,000 units for next year.

In addition, Zyxel has seen its monthly shipment of the network cards to reach around 10,000 units in the fourth quarter of this year and will perhaps post annual shipment of hundreds of thousand units in 2008, while Gemtek will most likely challenge the highest shipment of between 800,000 and one million units for this year.

Next year, prices of WiMAX-based network cards will probably drop to US$50 per unit from US$100, and that of CPE will also decline from an existing US$215.

(by Steve Chuang)