LOOK spectrum not worth bidding on? only worth a couple hundred mil ?... yeah right.

http://www.wimax.com/commentary/blog...

Strong Growth reported in Mobile WiMAX Revenues for 3Q and 4Q 2008

Market researcher Dell’Oro Group reports that worldwide mobile WiMAX infrastructure revenues nearly quadrupled in the third quarter of 2008 (compared to the third quarter of 2007). The firm expects revenue to be strong in the fourth quarter of 2008, with anticipated growth expected to exceed the third quarter’s record surge.

“Mobile WiMAX revenues were very strong in the third quarter of last year, and we anticipate revenue for the fourth quarter to set another record,” said Scott Siegler, Senior Analyst of Mobile Infrastructure research at Dell’Oro Group. "With LTE still a couple of years away, WiMAX has, in fact, become the first next-generation technology with commercial service," Siegler said.

The report states that the top four Mobile WiMAX vendors in the third quarter – Samsung, Motorola, Alcatel-Lucent and Alvarion – represented nearly 90 percent of the total market.

The analyst did sound a cautionary note due to the harsh economic climate, “However, as we look into 2009, we expect the WiMAX market to be hit rather hard by the economic downturn. Building out brand new networks from scratch requires tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars of capital," said Siegler.

With initial LTE rollouts coming in the 2010 to 2011 timeframe, delays will shorten the time to market advantage WiMAX currently has over LTE, according to Siegler.

Opinion: We think that the credit freeze and difficulty in obtaining funding for network infrastructure build-outs will effect LTE as well as Mobile WiMAX. In particular, we don't expect significant LTE rollouts till 2011 or 2012 (e.g. we slightly disagree with Dell'Oro Group on this). Unlike LTE, Mobile WiMAX technology is ready to be deployed now. Hence, it will continue to have a time to market advantage over LTE - at least for the next two or three years.