The latest edition of the WiMAXCounts Quarterly Report from Maravedis shows a fourth quarter 2007 increase of 350,000 in the global BWA/WiMAX subscriber base, to a total of 1,728,000 subscribers. Adlane Fellah, CEO and founder of Maravedis, points to the need for equipment certification and reduced prices for customer premises equipment (CPE) before WiMAX can experience rapid growth. He notes: "Even with an increase of more than 20 percent in WiMAX subscribers in the last quarter of 2007, operators are still waiting for the tipping point that will lead to acceleration of WiMAX adoption and deployments. The key factors mainly center on certification of mobile WiMAX equipment, a reduction in CPE pricing, and the emergence of a device ecosystem."
Cintia Garza, co-author of the WiMAXCounts Quarterly Report, adds "Many operators are holding back their network expansion pending the mobile WiMAX 802.16e equipment certification, which was postponed to the second half of 2008. Mobile WiMAX is a key enabler of a wider range of value-added services and product flexibility."