(Via FierceBroadbandWireless) The Wimax Forum is predicting no less than 130 million Wimax users in four years although network interoperability remains a challenge.
Wimax Forum president Ron Resnick issued this forecast at the Wimax World conference in Chicago.
According to Resnick, more than 100 Wimax-enabled networks worldwide are in commercial deployment. However, he noted some challenges ahead, particularly roaming capabilities.
Resnick said the industry group will introduce a roaming readiness program in December where it will work in conjunction with roaming clearinghouses (such as iPass) to develop roaming specifications for all Wimax operators.
US carriers have gained the attention of industry analysts, in particular, the joint venture between Clearwire and Sprint.
A Clearwire executive said during the conference the company currently covers 16 million POPs (points of presence) and has about 500,000 subscribers using its 'pre-Wimax' service.
Google is also an investor in the Clearwire-Sprint Wimax joint venture, expected to leverage on Google's Android platform for network devices and also its search and advertising services.