Clearwire unveils Spanish expansion

GENEVA, USA: Wireless service provider Clearwire International unveiled its expansion into Spain on Tuesday, hoping to inject life into a technology that many in the mobile industry had already laid to rest.

Clearwire said on Tuesday it has picked Alvarion and ZTE as network infrastructure suppliers for its planned launch of WiMax services in Spain in 2010.

WiMax has been competing for the status of next-generation mobile technology, but has largely lost the battle to Long Term Evolution (LTE), which has become mobile operators' favoured solution as it can exploit existing infrastructure.

Clearwire President Barry West, however, said that "WiMax is past the tipping point" and was here to stay.

Alvarion will supply network equipment in the city of Malaga and ZTE will provide its services in the city of Seville, West said at a telecoms industry event in Geneva on Tuesday.

Industry association WiMax Forum has said that WiMax service providers will offer networks covering 800 million people by the end of 2010. However, only a fraction of them are likely to subscribe to such services, analysts say.

WiMax vendors are betting on new operators and emerging markets for an uptick in demand, but still many analysts say WiMax is destined to be a niche player in a market expected to total $45 billion in 2009, according to research group Gartner.

This year the overall demand for mobile broadband services has continued to boom, but the WiMax industry has been hurt by the recession and credit crunch as most operators opening networks are startups needing outside financing.

"Challengers need funding and the financial crisis hurt them," said Tzvika Friedman, chief executive of Alvarion.

Also on Tuesday, Alvarion unveiled a $12 million deal to provide WiMax gear to Safaricom  in Kenya.

"Mobile WiMax is coming: slowly, but definitely. Each technology takes time to be adopted by the world," Hung Song, the head of Samsung Electronics' WiMax operations told Reuters in an interview.