RIP WiMax.

[SunnyD]

Clearwire is moving to LTE

KIRKLAND, Wash, Aug. 3, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Clearwire Corporation (Nasdaq:CLWR), a leading provider of 4G wireless broadband services in the United States, today announced its intent to add "LTE Advanced-ready" technology to its 4G network. The announcement follows the successful completion of 4G technology trials that achieved download speeds exceeding 120 Mbps and demonstrated the potential of Clearwire's unmatched spectrum advantage.

The initial implementation of Clearwire's LTE network would target densely populated, urban areas of Clearwire's existing 4G markets where current 4G usage demands are high. The robust all-IP infrastructure already deployed in these markets can be leveraged to serve the company's LTE needs, delivering significant capital cost savings compared to a similar overlay by other carriers of an existing 3G architecture.

lol at their jab at Lightsquared...

"In addition, the 2.5 GHz spectrum band in which we operate is widely allocated worldwide for 4G deployments, enabling a potentially robust, cost effective and global ecosystem that could serve billions of devices," Saw added. "We anticipate that the economies of scale derived from this global ecosystem will act as a catalyst for the development of thousands of low-cost devices and applications. And, since we currently support millions of customers in the 2.5 GHz band, we know that our LTE network won't present harmful interference issues with GPS or other sensitive spectrum bands."

They will be keeping WiMax going... for the time being. Most likely until Sprint fully switches over to LTE and drops WiMax.

Clearwire also restated its commitment to its existing 4G WiMAX network, which covers approximately 132 million people while serving 7.65 million retail and wholesale customers and an ecosystem of nearly 110 WiMAX enabled devices, including all 4G phones currently offered by Sprint. Clearwire expects to end 2011 with approximately 10 million 4G customers.

 

[dguy6789]

WiMax reminds me of the Sega 32X.

 

[amdhunter]

Will they keep unlimited plans after the move to LTE? That's all I want to know.

 

[smartpatrol]

WiMax reminds me of the Sega 32X.

Haha! Or maybe it's more like Too Human. . . overhyped, took forever to get here, and couldn't compete with the big boys when it finally came out.

 

[Compddd]

So it would be unwise to splurge on those Intel WiMax upgrades when purchasing a new laptop?

 

[ElFenix]

doesn't sprint own half of clearwire?

 

[SunnyD]

doesn't sprint own half of clearwire?

And Sprint has already committed to it's base station overhaul to migrate to LTE, as well as partner with Lightsquared for LTE service. Sprint all but said that they're done with the WiMax experiment.

 

[xXFaNtAsMaXx]

So they'll be using Sprint's towers? That blows; Sprint has terrible coverage.

 

[ElFenix]

And Sprint has already committed to it's base station overhaul to migrate to LTE, as well as partner with Lightsquared for LTE service. Sprint all but said that they're done with the WiMax experiment.

afaik they only used wimax because it was ready when sprint needed to use the frequencies by.


iirc, sprint's lte is not using the same lte as vzw and att so no interoperability :\


edit: TD-lTE seems way better for data than FD-LTE

 

[Dulanic]

So they'll be using Sprint's towers? That blows; Sprint has terrible coverage.

That depends on where you live. Almost everywhere I have lived Sprint has been best for me. IMO for national coverage it is Verizon > Sprint > AT&T > T-Mobile but that is a general over view that doesn't take into account location.

 

[jersiq]

afaik they only used wimax because it was ready when sprint needed to use the frequencies by.


iirc, sprint's lte is not using the same lte as vzw and att so no interoperability :\


edit: TD-lTE seems way better for data than FD-LTE

There are tradeoffs for each system between FDD and TDD, mobility being one of them.

 

[Lemon law]

My initial reaction is that the Sprint LTE technology may be greatly superior to any other wireless carrier.

But the question becomes will Sprint and Clearwite be able to exploit technological superiority into a increased market share?

And IMHO, that answer is NO. Simply because both Sprint and Clearwire doomed themselves with past stupidity. As they by in large went way way too cheap in terms of building in front and backhaul capacity into all its towers. And now they will have to both invest in building in that front and backhaul that will cost a bundle, and at the same times spend a fortune in deploying their LTE to all its Towers. Where will Sprint get all those investment dollars when its market share is rapidly diminishing?

In short Sprint management took too many poison Pills years ago, that dose is now fatal, and now all we can say is Alas poor Yorick, now you will die.

 

[tonygeor]

Wimax is too short of the range to be an effective cellular deployment...I feel the tech would be more suited to network a building (for a large business)

 

[OBLAMA2009]

theres wimax on most intel laptops sold at bestbuy. nobody seems to know this or care

 

[boomhower]

Wimax is too short of the range to be an effective cellular deployment...I feel the tech would be more suited to network a building (for a large business)

I don't think it's so much wimax as it is the spectrum it's being deployed in. The end result is the same to the consumer but from my understanding it's not the standard that's the issue but the way it's being implemented.

 

[zerocool84]

I don't think it's so much wimax as it is the spectrum it's being deployed in. The end result is the same to the consumer but from my understanding it's not the standard that's the issue but the way it's being implemented.

Yes the frequency they use easily gets distorted by any obstruction so it sucks in any normal city. My friends get at least 2x the speed on LTE compared to what I get on WiMax on my phone. Plus their speeds are much more consistent as WiMax is all over the place.

 

[ElFenix]

Yes the frequency they use easily gets distorted by any obstruction so it sucks in any normal city. My friends get at least 2x the speed on LTE compared to what I get on WiMax on my phone. Plus their speeds are much more consistent as WiMax is all over the place.

well, partly that's due to how few devices are actually on verizon's LTE network.

 

[pm]

Wimax is too short of the range to be an effective cellular deployment...I feel the tech would be more suited to network a building (for a large business)

Wimax is surprisingly similar to LTE in terms of modulation. They both use OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) for the downlink, so one shouldn't have a shorter range than the other. In fact depending on channel bandwidth, Wimax is rated for much longer air distances than LTE (5km for LTE, 8.4-21km for Wimax). For building penetration it's more a matter of which frequencies the carrier is using rather than differences between the two standards - at the same frequency they should penetrate structures similarly.