WiMax vs. LTE Battle for Next Gen Wireless Heats Up

• By Priya Ganapati
• March 6, 2009 |
• 11:11 am |
• Categories: Wireless Tech

The Clear WiMax wireless broadband connectivity service from ClearWire has been available only in Portland and Baltimore so far but the company has some big expansion plans up its sleeve.

ClearWire plans to extend its WiMAX service to about 80 cities nationwide by the end of 2010. WiMAX subscribers will get a 3G/4G modem, says the company, but its not a home run yet for Clearwire. Rival Nokia is ramping up its efforts to introduce WiMAX competitor LTE to U.S. users.

Nokia will focus on LTE (Long Term Evolution) as its preferred network and plans to launch devices for those networks in 2010, says James Harper, senior manager of technology marketing at Nokia according to GigaOm. “WiMAX has some place in the market but we do believe it’s a niche play,” says Harper.

Both WiMax and LTE are 4G technologies. WiMax is based on IEEE standards while LTE is supported by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) group. The biggest difference from the telecom carrier perspective between the two standards is how they will be deployed. WiMAX requires a new network to be built whereas LTE is an evolution of existing WCDMA/HSPA networks.

The upgrade to LTE makes it a more natural choice for many telecom carriers and that’s what Nokia is counting on. MetroPCS has already said it will support LTE. MetroPCS plans to launch a smartphone in the second or third quarter says Tom
Keys, chief operating officer for the company.

That’s not good news for Clearwire. Clearwire is backed by Comcast, Intel, Time Warner Cable, Google and
Bright House Networks, which together have invested $3.2 billion in the company. Clearwire’s open all-IP network can provide users with average download speeds initially of 2-4 megabits per second and peak rates that are considerably faster, says the company.

But without enough support from device makers and other telecom carriers, Sprint which combined its 4G assets with Clearwire may find itself in the minority.