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Clearwire Further Opens the Door to LTE Switch

May 6, 2010, 9:27 AM by Eric M. Zeman

During Clearwire's recent quarterly conference call, the company indicated that it has changed an agreement in place with Intel. Intel has invested heavily in WiMax technology. The change in the agreement between the two companies allows either party to exit the agreement with 30 days notice with no penalties. Previously, Clearwire was required to use WiMax until November 2011. Clearwire's CEO Bill Morrow said in March that he believes it would be best to agree on one next-generation wireless networking technology moving forward, and said that Clearwire could change from WiMax to Long Term Evolution if it needed to. Both standards use similar technologies. Clearwire has not announced any formal shift from WiMax to LTE, but has certainly given the company the legal wiggle room to do so. In the U.S., Clearwire and Sprint's competitors AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and others have all sided with LTE. Verizon Wireless, in particular, plans to launch several LTE markets by the end of 2010.

GigaOm »

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Comments

This forum is closed.

This forum is closed.

crood

May 6, 2010, 10:03 AM

How necessary was this change?

Even if Clear chose to switch today, would they be likely be fully converted before November 2011? They'd have to run both for some period of time. I don't see them replacing everyone's notebook adapters, nor do I see Sprint halting the release of the EVO or later replacing them.

Could this be done through a firmware upgrade?

Slammer

First) They haven't changed. They're saying they are leaving the door open.

Second) Yes. LTE and WiMax are software controlled. They both use the same technology. This is why I don't get the hate on WiMax. Everyone in the markets has the chance to...
(continues)

...

Sin City

May 6, 2010, 10:56 AM

Choices

Clearwire/Sprint will most likely choose between WiMax 2 or LTE-Advanced. They are not giving up on WiMax just yet, but rather playing it smart and not giving up on LTE either. TD-LTE is another option that both companies reached out for, which is another easier transition.

Sin City

Another thing I forgot to add but if I had to choose between LTE-Advanced and WiMax 2, I'm picking WiMax 2. WiMax is beyond mobile, it's going to be used everywhere.

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