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Telecommunications Ericsson gives up on WiMAX
Telecommunications Ericsson gives up on WiMAX | Ericsson gives up on WiMAX |
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| by Stuart Corner | |
| Sunday, 25 March 2007 | |
      
There have been several reports recently comparing WiMAX unfavourably to HSPA, including one for Arthur D Little, reported in ITWire http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/9442/127/. However WiMAX protagonists suggest that this comparison is not the one that should be made. Rather WiMAX should be compared with the next iteration of 3G, the so-called Long Term Evolution (LTE) and in this comparison WiMAX stacks up much better. Ericsson claims the lead in LTE development. It staged what was claimed to be the first demonstration of the technology at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona in February. The demonstration achieved speeds up to 144Mbps on a 20MHz carrier in the 2.6GHz band. LTE supports operations in both the paired spectrum (FDD) and unpaired spectrum (TDD). Channel bandwidths of 1.25-20MHz are supported. According to Ericsson, "LTE enables efficient spectrum utilisation for both legacy and future wireless frequency bands. The large wireless industry behind LTE ensures economies of scale, providing very cost-efficient solutions." Commenting on Ericsson's decision, Light Reading suggested that "Ericsson's worst nightmare is that big operators will decide to go for mobile WiMax instead of waiting for long-term evolution (LTE) to develop, which is the next technology upgrade." Motorola, which is a strong champion of WiMAX, claims that WiMAX v LTE is the appropriate comparison and that WiMAX has a lead. Simon Leung, resident of Motorola Asia Pacific, told this author recently that: "The competing technology to WiMAX is not really 3G, it is LTE which is meant to be an IP network like WiMAX and that will be available 2010 and beyond, so WiMAX has a time to market advantage."{moscomment}
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