LTE is about to go commercial as a real-world 4G mobile broadband technology, by the end of the year. And with that, the era of LTE v. WiMAX is coming to a close. The question now is how these two complementary technologies will ultimately architect new business models, not which one will do it better.
“There is an explosion of demand for mobile broadband, of course, and the real challenge has been in deciding the best way to fill it, because we have two viable technologies,” said Bruce Brda, senior vice president and general manager of the networks segment of Motorola Inc.'s Enterprise Mobility Solutions division. “But the debate is now over. People have chosen their technology and are on a path for either WiMAX or LTE.”
WiMAX Will Remain
While most Tier 1 operators around the world have chosen LTE as their particular 4G poison, WiMAX clearly will remain a technology with critical mass. Aside from soon-to-be-eradicated differentiators like the spectrum it can operate in (LTE is somewhat constricted), or the fact that it can elegantly support VoIP, unlike LTE, WiMAX also enjoys an embedded base that’s not to be sniffed at.
Dave Maquera, chief strategy officer at Clearwire Corp., which covers 34 million Points of Presence (PoPs) with WiMAX today in 27 markets (120 PoPs are planned by the end of the year), said that WiMAX did give it a clear and obvious advantage over its broadband competitors. “We are the first 4G operator,” he said. “We built this network from the ground up as a massive packet delivery wireless network. And there is a multitude of devices and applications and partners and business models that haven't really been created yet. We are architected to support all of those new business models.
Kevin Jones, Intel Corp.’s “global 4G evangelist,” emphasizes that the 4G technology landscape is now about coexistence, and is no longer an either-or discussion. “There are different usage models, spectrum needs and differentiators for every operator,” he said. “In developed markets, there’s a need for higher capacity and mobile broadband for applications. In developing markets, it’s about connectivity, period. And WiMAX was the first available technology for broadband; there’s nothing terrestrial available in many of these places.”
