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Mobile Wireless Internet Skyrockets
FCC sez so
Do this: go to www.fcc.gov and scroll down through their news to 1/31/07 see "FCC Releases Data on High Speed Services for Internet Access", download it and note a) broadband (defined by the FCC as 200 Kbps or faster in one direction) is available to over 80% of America and b) the meteoric rise in percentage of those who have broadband internet access via their cell phone provider.
Table 1 of the report shows a growth in mobile wireless high speed lines from 379,536 in June of 2005 booming to 11,015,968 in June of 2006. Yes, it was Abe Lincoln's birthday this past Monday and one of his many famous quotes is "liars figure and figures lie". Are they counting all EvDo subscribers (my Verizon cell phone service for example) as having broadband wireless internet access even if they never use the data portion of their cell phone service? What about all those busy people with Blackberrys and Treo phones sending and receiving email? Does that count as Internet access? I doubt its those users primary means of Internet access. Here's my wild-eyed optimistic analysis of those numbers.
If there really were 11 million Americans who access the Internet via their cell phone services in June of 2006, that's a great thing as it serves as "training wheels" for WiMAX. Like mobile wireless Internet access at 200 kbps on your cell phone? You're gonna love WiMAX at 5 Mbps on your laptop in the train/bus/car!
Keep in mind that there are something like 120 million households in the US. That 11 million mobile wireless Internet subscribers could also be counted as 10% of all US households have mobile wireless Internet access. Simply put, its also half of the 22 million that have DSL access. Another 28 million Americans have cable modem access. Lookout wire line internet access providers-that growth in wireless broadband internet subscribers June 2005 to June 2006 marks a 2900% annual growth in subscribership.
My final analysis is that these FCC numbers point to an explosive trend in wireless internet access, mobile or fixed. That is, these numbers torpedo any notion that the market may be reluctant to subscribe to wireless services for their internet access,thus paving the way for residential and business WiMAX use.
Frank Ohrtman
WMX Systems, LLC
