There’s enough room in wireless for WiMAX and LTE to coexist, sai...
There’s enough room in wireless for WiMAX and LTE to coexist, said an official from WiMAX equipment maker Alvarion in an interview. “I think everyone loves conflict but the reality is it’s a huge world,” said Patrick Leary, assistant…
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marketing vice president. A similar battle of words was fought between CDMA and GSM network technologies, he said, but both are still going strong. Even if WiMAX and LTE split the wireless market fifty-fifty, “there’s hundreds of billions on either side,” he said. WiMAX has advantages, he said: “WiMAX as a technology has this ability to solve distinct problems that distinct carriers may have.” Alvarion sells equipment to a “wide swath” of operator customers using WiMAX for different end goals, he said. AT&T is using WiMAX in Alaska because it’s the least difficult way to deploy a broadband network there, he said. Virginia startup DigitalBridge is using WiMAX to carve out a market niche serving under-served areas, he said. Digicel is a “pure cellular” voice carrier in the Caribbean seeking to increase competitiveness against incumbent rivals, he said. TDS, a CLEC from Madison, Wis., launched a WiMAX network in late January to escape adverse impact from wireline deregulation in the region, he said.