Northern Sky Research (NSR) released its newest survey and forecast report, "Broadband Wireless Markets—Assessing the Market Potential for WiMAX, Wi-Fi, 3G, 4G, UWB and ZigBee (2005-2010)." The report answers critical questions surrounding the broadband wireless market, such as the precise positioning of each broadband wireless technology and which applications, technologies and regions/countries will drive growth over the next five years.

The report concludes that 2006 will be a vital year for broadband wireless technologies, as the market will likely see the launch of the first ZigBee, UWB and WiMAX-based products. Key developments include:

• WiMAX vendors are slated to deploy the first certified 802.16d solutions in early or mid-2006, and early deployments will take shape in primarily licensed spectrum in both developed and developing countries. With industry support from leaders such as Intel and Fujitsu, the WiMAX market should accelerate over the next 12 to 18 months and produce nearly 500,000 802.16d subscribers by the end of 2006.
• Despite the current lack of a single UWB standard and global regulatory framework, North America will be the first market to launch commercial UWB-based products for the consumer market in late 2006, primarily in the PC and peripherals (wireless USB) and consumer electronics segments. This market is projected to produce over 209 million deployed units by 2010.
• NSR also expects the first ZigBee-enabled products to be available in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific in Q1 2006, with initial deployments to occur in the industrial, commercial and home automation markets. NSR projects more than 580 million deployed ZigBee units by 2010.
• The Wi-Fi space also will see the ratification of the promising 802.11n spec in 2006, which will increase bandwidth and performance of Wi-Fi solutions, thus making them more competitive with new and established broadband wireless technologies.

"After years of planning and industry efforts, the market is poised to see the entrance of WiMAX, UWB and ZigBee over the next 12 months,” said Christopher Baugh, president of NSR. “These new technologies are set to target specific personal and metro access market opportunities, with the promise of high performance, eventual low costs and interoperability."

"However, despite the promise of WiMAX, and to a lesser extent, UWB and ZigBee, NSR still expects the Wi-Fi, 3G and eventual 4G markets to represent the largest market opportunity in terms of subscribers, hardware sales and service revenue. With more than 1.2 billion 3G subscribers projected by 2010, it is clear that 3G will be the leading broadband wireless technology over the next five years in this increasingly competitive market. 3G currently has a three-year time-to-market advantage over mobile WiMAX and will likely reinforce its lead with the emergence of new 3G technologies (HSDPA/HSUPA/Rev.A/ Super 3G, and TD-CDMA)," said Baugh.