Wireless broadband services will create significant opportunities for revenue growth, and cellular technologies will take the largest share, according to the latest report from Analysys Mason. Research from the group also suggests WiMAX will fail to achieve a significant share of the rapidly developing wireless broadband market, contributing only 2% of global revenue.

Globally, the firm predicts 2.1 billion wireless broadband customers will generate $784 billion in service revenue by 2015. Wireless technologies, device improvements and flexible pricing options will drive this growth.

HSPA will support 88% of all wireless broadband consumers at the end of 2008, and its importance will continue. “Despite the increasing availability of LTE and WiMAX, HSPA and HSPA+ will still support 54% of wireless broadband users by the end of 2015,” said Dr. Mark Heath, co-author of the report.

Developing regions will account for only 17% of wireless broadband customers at the end of 2008, but the lack of fixed-line infrastructure in these regions will bolster the growth of wireless broadband services, and developing regions will account for 57% of wireless broadband customers worldwide by the end of 2015.

Other findings:

• Cellular technologies will dominate wireless broadband services, with 20 times as many users as WiMAX by the end of 2015.
• LTE will take off relatively slowly, but its customer base will reach 440 million by 2015, with associated revenue of $194 billion.
• WiMAX will be squeezed from developed markets by fixed and cellular broadband services and by 2015 will serve just 98 million customers worldwide, of which 92% will be in developing regions.