Integrated Wireless-pon access Network Architectures Milos Milosavljevic

Chapter 1 
Introduction – PON and WiMAX Technologies 
9 
1.4.2 WiMAX
According to the WiMAX forum, an industry-led non-profitable organization formed to certify 
and promote the compatibility and interoperability of broadband wireless products based upon 
the harmonized IEEE 802.16/ETSI HiperMAN standards, the second quarter of 2009 WiMAX 
deployment reached the milestone of 500 networks in more than 145 countries [30]. At the 
close of second quarter of 2009, over 3.96 million WiMAX subscribers existed that represents a 
16% growth from first quarter of 2009 and a 72% growth over quarter two of 2008 [30, 31].
As illustrated in Figure 1-3, the fixed and mobile WiMAX are already available in North 
America, Europe, Asia, South America, the Middle East, and Africa [32]. In Europe, for 
instance, WiMAX Telecom AG is a leading cross-border wireless access operator. The 
company currently has 42 MHz of 3.5 GHz spectrum in Austria, Croatia, Germany, Slovakia, 
and Switzerland [30]. Also, Danske Telecom in Denmark, holding the license in 3.5GHz 
spectrum, lunched WiMAX services in 2008 covering about 40% of its population [30].
Figure 1-3: WiMAX deployment worldwide [32] 
Furthermore, in 2009 UQ Communications of Japan launched Mobile WiMAX service [30, 33] 
following the lead of Clearwire of North America and Scartel of Russia, which both started 
their Mobile WiMAX service in 2008. Clearwire, with the average download speed limited to 

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Chapter 1 
Introduction – PON and WiMAX Technologies 
10 
3-6 Mbit/s, plans to continue expansion to cover 120 million users, almost half of the U.S. 
population, by 2010 [32]. Scartel has begun services in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and its 
2009 plan included 11 major cities [32]. 
Finally, in terms of usage cost, WiMAX is the only wireless standard to enable users to use data 
services at an affordable price today. Currently, major wireless service providers provide 3G 
data service for laptops at about $60/5Gbytes with additional charges over 5 Gbytes [32]. US 
operator Clearwire, for instance, offers unlimited data service at $50 [32].