Corporate And Residential Users Drive The Russian Demand For Wireless Broadband Services

Corporate And Residential Users Drive The Russian Demand For Wireless Broadband Services

Dublin (PRWEB) May 28, 2006 -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c37611) has announced the addition of Russian Federation Broadband and WiMAX Market Analysis and Forecasts 2006-2010 1st Edition to their offering.

This 100-page report, the second of a series that includes reports on Brazil and India, provides an in-depth review of the broadband wireless and WiMAX markets and regulatory activity taking place in Russia.

The Russian economy is flourishing and demand is quickly outpacing the supply of telecommunications services provided by the legacy wired telecommunication infrastructure built during the communist era. More than 70% of Russian households do not have access to fixed wired telephone services. Instead, customers have flocked to cellular phone carriers, which have built a tremendous infrastructure to provide service to more than 130 million customers, or 90% of the Russian population.

The same trend is predicted for broadband wireless Internet access services such as WiMAX, that will provide high-speed data services over a wireless data infrastructure. Small- to medium-sized businesses understand the potential of websites and doing business online via the Internet in order to reach the worldwide economy. Since 75% of Russian households cannot get basic dial-up Internet access, wireless Internet service providers (WISPs) are expected to tap into this latent demand for broadband Internet connections.

“There is huge potential for broadband wireless Internet and voice-over-IP services in Russia because there are still more than 40,000-50,000 towns and villages with no basic communications services,” explained our Russian and Ukraine Senior Analyst, Artur Mironenko. “And, as the economy keeps improving, not only do customers want high-speed connections, but in many areas they now have the household budgets to pay for high-speed Internet access.”

“Several wireless Internet service providers, such as Art Com, Enforta and Tascom, have already launched service in Russia and are enjoying early successes and heavy demand from consumers and businesses,” said Adlane Fellah, senior analyst. “Our forecast for Russian broadband wireless access shows the vast potential for this marketplace and provides an analysis of existing wireless operators.”

We predict a consolidation among the current 200 BWA service providers active in the country. In fact, the authors interviewed and profiled the Top 10 service providers in Russia and concluded that the most active players will be cash-rich companies hat belong to one of three major holdings in Russia, namely Alfa, Sistema and Telekom Invest, which control both fixed and mobile service providers. Others such as Enforta also benefit from a sound investment capacity. Vendors and financiers need to be aware of “noise makers” who put press releases with ambitious plans but after analysis appear as just “smoke and mirrors.”

“The most promising regions (oblasts) for the development of BWA/WiMAX networks are Moscow city, St. Petersburg, Samara oblast, Sverdlovsk oblast, Rostov oblast, Tatarstan republic, Krasnodar krai, Tyumen oblast, Chelyabinsk oblast and Bashkortostan republic. The Central region will concentrate one third of total subscribers,” added Mironenko.

“However, shortage of spectrum and very stringent regulation for equipment and licensing are serious obstacles for massive adoption of broadband wireless and WiMAX in Russia. For WiMAX to prosper in Russia, frequency bands in the 2 GHz range (2.3-2.4 and/or 2.5-2.7 GHz) must be made available to commercial operators. That will require current analog broadcasters to digitize their networks, mwhich will take a long time,” Mironenko continued.

This latest research also reveals that Russia remains a price sensitive market. Demand for broadband services is exploding, but both service providers and residential end-users demand low cost CPE (in the $100 range) before they will fully adopt WiMAX. So far, the demand for broadband wireless services has been mainly driven by high-end corporate and residential as well as government users.

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c37611

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