Before I get into the details about the WiMAX news, I wanted to take a second to introduce myself.

My name is Miranda MacDonald and I've been doing Media Relations here at Nortel for almost two years. Bo has trusted me with Buzzboard for the week while he enjoys Thanksgiving with his family. I'm Canadian and we've already had our Thanksgiving so I'll be here posting on Buzzboard and trying to suppress my envy for those of you on holiday this week. So coming to you live from the chilly north is a new voice from Nortel to talk about some of our news this week.

About a month ago, Bo pointed out an article on GigaOM that highlighted a report on the global WiMAX market. The study, conducted by TeleGeography Research, said that the number of commercial WiMAX networks worldwide jumped 82% in the last year - from 69 to 126 and that WiMAX was gaining ground in many areas outside the US, particularly India.

Well, it looks like this study was bang-on and the number of global WiMAX deployments has grown a little bit today with the announcement that Nortel is teaming with India's Chhattisgarh State Government to deploy a new, high-bandwidth State Wide Area Network (SWAN). The network, which is a mix of both wireless and wireline access, will be one of the largest fixed WiMAX deployments in the country for e-government, providing access to 3,000 locations in the state.

As part of India's National e-Governance Plan, the network will be used in Common Services Centres (CSCs) throughout the state to allow people easy access to services such as applying for birth certificates, land use records, business certification or tracking the status of applications online.

Another interesting use for this network is intra and inter-department connectivity. This increased connectivity can really boost State Government efficiency. For example, Regional Transport Offices (RTO) will be connected across the State and connected to the Police department. Now, if a vehicle is used in a crime, police can instantly access the details of the owner of the vehicle within the RTO which can really speed up the time it takes to find the offender. Talk about Hyperconnectivity!

The TeleGeography Report is one of many recent articles that estimate India will experience exponential growth in WiMAX users. This recent article from The Hindu Business Line states that WiMAX will be a $13 billion market in India by 2012. As well, this article from The Economic Times says that all the leading players in the WiMAX sector are looking at India as one of the bases for WiMAX software development and as a home for their manufacturing facilities in the near future.