Fujitsu Sees US$1 Billion WiMax Opportunity by 2011

(04/06/2008, BWCS Staff)
Ever-optimistic, Japanese manufacturer Fujitsu has predicted it will be making sales of over US$1 billion worth of WiMax chips by 2011. This compares to WiMax sales of just over zero that the company reported in its last financial year.
Fujitsu said that WiMax services will be launched on a commercial basis as early as this year in Taiwan. In Japan, a group led by KDDI Corp plans to start WiMax operations next year, while in the UK Urban WiMax has already launched services. Fujitsu expects its power-efficient communication chips to drive the company's overall WiMax chip sales.
The WiMax chip sales target of US$1 billion is equivalent to just over 2% of Fujitsu's total revenues in the year to March 2008. The company said that it expects the global number of WiMax users is set to reach up to 50 million by 2012.
Fujitsu does not believe WiMax will have to compete with Long Term Evolution as the fourth-generation mobile phone standard of choice, as WiMax focuses on faster data transmissions at the expense of voice. However, some analysts believe that LTE will emerge victorious over WiMax in the race for 4G wireless networks as so many large operators such as Vodafone, Verizon Wireless, China Mobile and Japan's NTT DoCoMo are backing LTE.