WiMAX, once promised as “Wireless Nirvana” is a technology that was (or perhaps is) in danger of becoming an “orphan technology”. After the initial hype there were some installations rural areas, mainly in places where the fixed infrastructure was lacking but no runaway successes have been noted.
The lack of WiMAX adoption in Western Europe has a number of reasons. First; Like all new technologies the price is usually high to support the initial Carrier CAPEX outlay, the price of a normal WiMAX service is 2-3 times what a congruent fixed-line (DSL) service would cost. Second; The lack of clear standardization and roadmap to interoperability doesn’t give Operators any insurance of long term technology evolution. Third; Operators weren’t waiting and installing HSDPA, HSUPA and other mobile technologies.
In the US the situation is a bit different, Clearwire Corp is a provider of WiMAX and has been growing at quite a clip. According to their website they are servicing 60 markets in North America.
According to an announcement today Clearwire has recently started offering services in Europe. The city of Malaga, Spain is the location chosen for the initial foray into Europe. So far there are no concrete announcements from Clearwire regarding installations in other markets however the smart better says that Malaga is the first of many.
