Increases in sales are expected from Wimax equipment sales overseas and from the 3G networks domestically.

Zhao Ming, Huawei’s head of CDMA and Wimax operations said that Wimax began to take off last year and Huawei expects equipment sales of the wireless broadband technology to double next year to $1 billion.

“This year it will be around $500 million … and next year it should be around $1 billion,” said Zhao, who also believes that sales will continue to grow rapidly in emerging markets where fixed line networks are poorly developed.

Wimax, offers blanket coverage of a city or small geographic area, and is best suited for emerging markets that don’t have a developed fixed-line network as well as rural areas in developed markets where wired broadband service is spotty, say analysts.

The company only had about $150 million in Wimax equipment sales in 2007, but falling prices have made the maturing technology more affordable to millions of users, said Zhao.

“You can now find terminal prices of under $100,” he said.

The price for such hardware — which allows broadband connections in areas that previously had little or no telephony services — was about $1,000 per customer four years ago and as much as $200-$250 last year.

“The growth will come from Asia, Africa and the Middle East,” he said. The technology, however, has limited uses in China, which boasts the world’s largest mobile market with over 600 million subscribers.

Industry sources forecast that Wimax users could grow to 100 million by 2012 from about 3.6 million people worldwide in 2007.

Huawei roughly doubled its market share from a year ago to became the world’s third-largest mobile network gear maker in the first quarter, overtaking Alcatel-Lucent , according to researcher Dell’Oro.

The global telecom equipment market contracted 9 percent in the first quarter of 2009 from a year ago, but China 3G tenders will likely prevent the market from falling further, according to Dell’Oro.

Source : Konaxis