Fujitsu forecasts £500 million WiMax chip sales

Electronics maker Fujitsu said that sales of WiMax wireless networking components is set to grow from almost nothing this year to 100 billion yen (475.5 million) by 2011, as demand for the technology takes off.

WiMax services are starting to launch in the UK, Europe, US and Japan now, but user numbers are low.

Fujitsu expects its power-efficient communication chips to drive the company's overall WiMax chip sales, Makoto Awaga, general manager of Fujitsu's microchip unit, said at the Computex computer show.

Energy efficiency is critical for any electronic component that goes into a mobile device as users seek extended use on a single battery.

Awaga said the number of WiMax users globally is likely to reach up to 50 million by 2012.

"By 2011 or 2012, certain progress should have been made on commercial operations, and various services will have become available," Awaga said.

"Counting users in the US, Japan, BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China), Asia, and part of Europe, the number will probably be about 40 to 50 million."

Awaga said, despite expectations by some industry specialists, WiMax may not be competing with another high-speed telecommunications technology called Long Term Evolution (LTE) to be the fourth-generation mobile phone standard of choice.

"Fourth-generation services will be an improvement of the current third-generation services in one form or another. Voice communications are an integral part the new services," Awaga said.

"WiMax, on the other hand, focuses on speedier transmissions of data, setting aside voice communications. It is possible to carry voice over WiMax. But I'm not sure if it makes very much sense," Awaga said.

Although WiMax counts Intel as a supporter, LTE got ahead in the race after Vodafone, Verizon Wireless, China Mobile and Japan's NTT DoCoMo, have rallied behind it.