In many ways, the WiMAX ecosystem is one of the most important aspects of the power of the technology.  Much like an environmental ecosystem that inspired its name, the viability of WiMAX in general depends on the interaction of many firms delivering different, but crucial aspects of the solution to the market. 

Just like a marine ecosystem has numerous plant, fish, coral and even water conditions that affect life for all, the WiMAX ecosystem consists of standards bodies, chip vendors, radio manufacturers, systems integrators, software developers, trade groups and even the media to address various aspects of the technology. 

Just at the chip level, the variety of companies delivering solutions ranging from the OFDMA™ technology being used in Mobile WiMAX to a wide variety of system-on-a-chip silicon providers, offer the variety of support and implementation strategies that will either ensure or fail to ensure that the technology supports the range of optional features that will garner customer attention.  As deployments have occurred around the world the promise of the WiMAX ecosystem to deliver lower prices is being realized.  Costs have largely dropped at all levels of the ecosystem.  And, in particular, once the Clearwire and Sprint spectrum merger is complete late in 2008 and deployments on that network accelerate, expect to see prices drop even more. 

The various radio vendors and their most direct partners, the system integrators, deliver unique solutions tailored to the various market niches that offer opportunity to them and their service provider customers.  Both fulfill specific roles within the ecosystem.