The upcoming WiMAX trial that Japan's Softbank Group and Motorola announced this week is just the latest example of how the Asia-Pacific Rim region is brimming with WiMAX activity, including trials and commercial deployments.

Research firm In-Stat reported this week that there are WiMAX trials in at least 13 countries in the region. The agency said the APAC market, including WiMAX CPEs, WiMAX base stations and WiMAX commercial services, but excluding the non-radio-access part of total WiMAX solutions, is valued at $106.4 million in 2006, and that figure will grow to $4.3 billion in 2011.

"No APAC service provider can ignore WiMAX," said Victor Liu, In-Stat analyst, in a statement. "Providers need either to evaluate the possibility of adding WiMAX to their existing services portfolio, or to assess the competitive pressure from other WiMAX service providers."

The latest trial announced in the region has Motorola providing five access points, an access network, and 25 prototype WiMAX mobile handheld devices for a Softbank trial that will begin in September in Tokyo. That trial will use the 2.5 GHz spectrum band, and will last for five months, according to the companies.