The report suggests the new technologies provide significant opportunities for both incumbent and competitive carriers.

"Our forecasts show that WiMAX will be the clear winner amongst the new high-speed wireless technologies," said Ian Cox, principal analyst at TelecomView and co-author of the report. "WiMAX will pick up 70 percent of this new market segment by 2009 due to its higher performance and flexibility compared to the alternatives. 3G will be important for its mobility, but WiMAX will directly compete with DSL." The report, which covers deployments, regulatory issues and analyses of the business case for both urban and rural areas, suggests that the return on investment (ROI) for these new wireless broadband technologies is significantly better than for 3G.

According to Bob Larribeau, the other author of the study and also a principal analyst at TelecomView, said: "In fact, the business case for WiMAX, in particular, is close to that for wireline DSL, which makes it an excellent broadband technology alternative."