Telecom and broadband experts belive that WiMax, a telecommunications technology that provides wireless voice and data over long distances is the solution for connecting Asia’s developing countries to the information super highway. While service providers say they don’t have the capital to set up mobile and internet services in Asia’s far flung under developed areas, technology guru’s have faith in wiMax’s ability to reach everywhere.

Thats why WiMax holds a promising potential as an alternative technology to connect underserved rural areas that will never realistically receive fixed-line services. The sweet spot for WiMax is its ability to provide voice and data connectivity at speeds of up to 1Mbps in Asia’s emerging markets where such digital divide exists, reported Business wire.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific WiMax Opportunity, finds that the region - covering 17 Asia-Pacific countries can potentially boast of 43 million WiMax subscribers by end-2013, generating estimated revenues of close to US$11 billion, at a CAGR of 45 percent (2007-2013).

The emerging markets are expected to account for nearly 80 percent (or 34.4 million) of the total subscribers in 2013, collectively contributing 69 percent (or US$7.59 billion) to the region’s total WiMax revenues given their low-ARPU (average revenue per user) nature.

As at end-2007, Asia’s household broadband penetration stood at 3.4 percent. This translates to nearly 3.7 billion people in the region who have yet to adopt broadband access services - a figure significantly higher than the world’s entire mobile subscriber base. Asia-Pacific, as such, remains the best test-bed for WiMax in terms of subscriber uptake and network deployments.

Of the 17 Asian countries in the study that were ranked for regulatory support and operator willingness to deploy the technology, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India topped the list due to excellent incumbent support, favourable regulatory regimes, and considerable untapped growth.

“While the regulatory restrictions continue to ease up, some large Asian markets such as China and Indonesia have made very little progress in licensing WiMax,” notes Frost & Sullivan senior industry analyst Marc Einstein, adding that China alone has the power to make or break WiMax service in the region if its government continues to delay WiMax roll-out as it did with 3G. Given a favourable government stance, China is forecasted to account for as much as 45 percent (or 19.35 million) of the total WiMax subscribers in 2013.

However, as large established operators such as Japan’s KDDI and India’s BSNL continue to pursue deployments, Frost & Sullivan believes that WiMax may just get a fresh lease on life in 2009.

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