As 4G technology continues to develop, the inevitable debate over WiMax v. LTE emerges.
Though there is a certain degree of competition between the two technologies, it has been misinterpreted as a heated battle where one technology is destined to succeed as the other fails.
The reality is that both WiMax and LTE will play major roles in the future and have the potential to concurrently benefit the wireless world.
With over seven million subscribers and upwards of 400 deployments worldwide, WiMax is gaining widespread popularity and success. This being said, new industry partnerships with an interest in LTE are emerging.
Early WiMax developers Yota, Clearwire, and Packet One are being joined by Intel, Nokia, Ericsson, and Sprint who have all responded positively to the working with WiMax and LTE. A number of WiMax IC/SOC suppliers have also announced that they are working on LTE and WiMax + LTE multiple mode chips.
A major part of the future of the technology landscape is timing. Predictions regarding the effects of the current hype about LTE look to a decrease popularity due to the fact that LTE will not be rolled out until 2012.
“Boatloads of bad press and public complaints will likely ensue for LTE, just as it did for WiMax, because the industry and the public will want to get their hands on what they’ve been promised for the last couple of years...once LTE networks become available and people fall in love with the service, the tides will change and LTE will become hot again," said Robb Henshaw, Director of Marketing and Communications at Proxim Wireless.
Location and availability will be two other key factors as we look ahead to the future because certain areas may only have access to either WiMax or LTE. This being said, even if WiMax does not become the technology of choice, experts have said that it can be expected that it will still play a major role as a backhaul technology for both 4G and Wi-Fi networks.
Despite competition, different technologies tend to be pushed together in the end based on their commonalities and not their differences because ultimately, the market is striving to provide the best products and services for its own benefit.
By developing both WiMax and LTE, suppliers and providers will be helping to overlap these two 4G ecosystems for the greater good of the technology world.
Overlapping has already been seen in recent weeks and months. WiMax superstar Clearwire discussed the possibility of supporting LTE based opportunities and referenced LTE's ability to be used in pre-existing locations of WiMax deployments as a major plus, a prospect also supported by Motorola, Samsung and Huawei.
WiMax SOCs provider Sequans will now be supplying USB dongles for China Mobile for LTE deployment and Beceem released a new chipset in Barcelona at the Mobile World Congress, including a chip offering a bridge between WiMax and LTE.
The Femto Forum released findings as well regarding how femtocells will be useful in the deployment of both technologies. Timing, availability, demand and collaboration are the key components in the evolution of 4G.
The future of WiMax and LTE is not an either/or situation and ultimately, they have the potential to co-exist, benefit, and change the technology world.
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