A new report from WiMAX Forum projects the Indian WiMAX market including devices will be worth $13 billion in 2012. The WiMAX Forum forecasts that by 2012 the Indian market will support 27.5 million WiMAX users - representing 20% of the global WiMAX user base - or 19 million WiMAX subscribers.

At a recent global industry event, Ron Resnick, President and Chairman of the WiMAX Forum referenced India as a leading example of WiMAX technology’s potential on the world stage. Citing the recent decision by India’s Department of Telecommunications to allocate and auction WiMAX spectrum to the 2.3 and 2.5 GHz frequency bands, Resnick excited the audience with India’s goal of connecting over one billion new customers.

“India currently has only 4.5 million broadband users out of a population of 1.2 billion people. And with these recent regulatory decisions, India joins other major developed nations such as the US, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Russia in freeing up prime spectrum for mobile WiMAX deployments,” said Mr. Resnick. “With the expected demand for WiMAX-enabled devices brought on by India’s planned WiMAX deployments, WiMAX Forum will add an Indian certification lab to its existing network in 2009 to stay ahead of the demand for products in this region. This will be very important to the device-hungry Indian market, which can look forward to connected laptops, USB dongles, ultra-mobile PC’s (UMPCs), mobile handsets, and mobile Internet devices (MIDs).”

WiMAX Forum predicts that major rollouts of WiMAX technology in India will have a tremendous positive effect on the nation’s economy. According the Indian government, the Indian economy is currently growing at 9% year over year; in particular there are an additional 8-10 million mobile phone subscribers every month. WiMAX Forum predicts that widespread access to broadband will greatly increase economic productivity by laying the groundwork for important initiatives, such as distance learning, telemedicine and e-government.

WiMAX Forum also announced that it is in the early stages of planning a WiMAX Applications Lab at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. With successful applications labs already running in Taiwan and the US, this third lab is set to add even more diversity to the group of developers already in the WiMAX fold. IIT Delhi has a functioning WiMAX test bed and serves as an ideal location to host this lab. Created with the backing of the Indian industry and DoT, this lab will focus on enhancing WiMAX quality of experience and WiMAX community services for underserved areas. IIT Delhi already has active programs examining IT Community services, including telemedicine, distance learning and e-government. These applications are of particular interest to the Indian market, and will be explored more fully through the creation of this lab.