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Opportunities for WiMAX in Russia |
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Thursday, 10 January 2008 |
According to a new report from Maravedis the
Russian Federation remains among the world’s top five wireless broadband opportunities. Maravedis’ second edition of the Russian Federation Broadband and WiMAX Market Analysis and Forecasts 2008-2012 details the opportunities and challenges within the
Russian Federation for BWA/WiMAX products and services.
The Russian economy is flourishing. GDP per capita has risen from US$4000 in 1999 to US$12,000 in 2006. The demand in telecom services is rapidly outpacing the capacity of legacy infrastructure. Even now, investment in telecom is mostly coming into large cities, still leaving many places without coverage. Over 75% of Russians still do not have access to basic dial-up Internet access. Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) have the chance to tap into this latent demand for broadband connections.
Several WISPs, such as Enforta, Quantum, and Synterra, have already launched services in numerous regions of
Russia. They are enjoying early successes and considerable demand from consumers and businesses, said Adlane Fellah, CEO and Founder of Maravedis Inc. “Our forecast for BWA shows the vast potential for this marketplace and is accompanied by an in-depth analysis of its existing wireless operators.”
Consolidation has already started among the 200 current BWA service providers in the country, said Artur Mironenko, analyst at Maravedis and author of the report. “After interviewing the Top 10 WISPs, we concluded that the most active players will be the cash-rich companies belonging to one of the three major holdings in Russia, namely Alfa, Sistema, and Telecom Invest, which control both fixed and mobile service providers. Others such as Enforta also benefit from a sound investment capacity.”
Maravedis is convinced that the
Russian Federation will remain a price-sensitive market. Mobile WiMAX needs to offer much lower prices to be competitive, as penetration of conventional broadband technologies is rapidly rising (though still at a low level). While demand for broadband services explodes, both service providers and residential users require low cost CPE (US$100 range) before they fully adopt WiMAX.
www.maravedis-bwa.com |
