Clearwire To Hedge WiMAX Bet By Adding LTE for 4G

Clearwire will hedge its WiMAX bet by adding LTE, the 4G standard to be used by Verizon Wireless and AT&T. While Clearwire says it's sticking with WiMAX, it also wants to be ready for a growing number of LTE mobile devices.
Clearwire CEO William Morrow said "download speeds of 20 to 70 megabits per second" are anticipated.
Wireless Internet provider Clearwire, which pioneered the 4G WiMAX network Relevant Products/Services with its partner, Sprint Nextel, will hedge its bets by branching out into another 4G technology Relevant Products/Services, LTE. Long Term Evolution is the standard that will soon provide 4G coverage for Verizon Wireless and AT&T's network as well as markets around the world.

Clearwire announced Wednesday that it will begin testing a new network in Phoenix, Ariz., with Huawei Technologies, the infrastructure Relevant Products/Services provider that deployed the first commercial LTE network in Europe. Clearwire now uses the same spectrum band and flexible base-station platform Relevant Products/Services in the United States.

'Technology Agnostic'

Clearwire isn't giving up on WiMAX. The Kirkland, Wash.-based company, which describes itself as "technology agnostic," is still committed to WiMAX for its current 4G plan. But with a growing number of LTE devices expected to be available in coming years -- Samsung and MetroPCS last week won approval for the first LTE phone -- Clearwire wants to conduct technical trials to see how it could have the best of both worlds.

"WiMAX provides us with unique advantages to meet the needs of our customers today," said Dr. John Saw, Clearwire's chief technology officer. "Ultimately, consumers don't care about technical acronyms, but they do care about quality and affordable Internet services that work where and when they want, and that's what we're focused on delivering."

Clearwire's plan shows how tech companies may adapt to the rapidly changing wireless Relevant Products/Services landscape by covering as many bases as they can, creating bridges between current and future technologies.

"WiMAX is certainly getting broad adoption internationally where there isn't any underlying broadband like in the U.S. and Europe," said analyst Gerry Purdy of MobilTrax. "As far as Clearwire, they will continue to use WiMAX and partner with Sprint. Look at the Sprint Overdrive [a mobile Relevant Products/Services hot-spot device released in April] as a good way to leverage WiMAX ... it uses WiMAX where it can and then 3G Relevant Products/Services elsewhere."

Something Old, Something New

Clearwire CEO William Morrow discussed the LTE technology trials in the company's second-quarter financial results conference call Wednesday.

"We expect the test to show that our all-IP network and unique depth of spectrum will enable us to deliver mobile broadband services at faster speeds and with more capacity than any other incumbent wireless carrier, regardless of the radio technology they plan to use," Morrow said, as reported by the financial site Seeking Alpha.

"In fact, we believe we can show real-world download speeds of 20 to 70 megabits per second versus the five to 12 anticipated by other local carriers. It's exciting from a technical and asset perspective because we are the only service provider in the nation with the spectrum necessary to be able to conduct tests of this nature and on this scale. And we can do it while reusing our existing core infrastructure and backhaul and using commercially available LTE equipment."