A Future of Convergence?

As you tin judge, today'south debate lies on which applied science has the virtually advantageous position. WiMAX is available now, but even Sprint and Clearwire's highest ranking executives have admitted that LTE might eventually become the dominant 4G technology throughout the earth. That's not to say they are fighting an already lost boxing. While they believe WiMAX has a lot of potential, and program to keep pushing it, their decision to back this technology is all about timing. By the time LTE hits the marketplace WiMAX will be bachelor in at least twice as many cities.

On the other hand, GSM network standards dominate over 80% of the cellular markets worldwide, so it'due south only natural that near mobile operators volition want to movement to LTE, as it's rooted on the same engineering science they've worked with for over a decade -- Verizon being the obvious exception with their network based on CDMA standards. Some other important factor, as mentioned earlier, is that LTE requires significantly less infrastructure and thus volition be cheaper to deploy.

Because both technologies are and then similar there has been talk virtually them converging in the future. Clearwire CEO Beak Morrow emphasized this thought at the recent CTIA Wireless trade prove, saying that the wireless manufacture should focus on the similarities between WiMAX and LTE rather than their differences. Motorola has added to this concept saying that they re-use much of its WiMAX technology when building LTE gear. Morrow envisions both technologies merging into i network standard, but even if that doesn't pan out, he says they can add together LTE to their network if necessary.

Verizon was quick to express doubt this will ever happen, but ultimately it's up to the standards bodies and the driving forces behind them. Regardless if such convergence ever gains traction, for now WiMAX is at least a yr ahead of LTE in terms of major commercial deployments and is moving full steam alee. Clearwire will likely market place WiMAX devices (and later on WiMAX 2) exclusively for the side by side ii-3 years, adding an LTE indicate with minimal change to its antennas when -- and if -- the market place demand is there as the LTE device ecosystem matures.

The leap to WiMAX in its electric current state is really more similar going from dial-upwards to DSL. Information technology's a dainty speed proceeds, comparable to some of the lower-end domicile broadband plans, but more of an intermediate step to something much faster. In the short term that could be LTE. Nosotros'll have to reserve judgment until it's available commercially, merely the fact remains neither technology will make users want to drop their speedy cable modem service just nonetheless.

If y'all are not looking to do extremely demanding broadband usage, and spend most of your time within Clear's WiMAX coverage area, and so the increased information speeds could be attractive for working at domicile or on the route without having to worry about finding a Wi-Fi hotspot. Sprint's upcoming HTC EVO handset might also play an important office in getting new customer sign-ups, as the beginning and probably only smartphone capable of 3-6Mbps download speeds that can also double as a portable Wi-Fi admission bespeak for as many as eight devices.