It's no huge secret that the differences between LTE and WiMAX
aren't exceedingly drastic, and with the right support, the two could theoretically form one big, happy family. During this morning's
CTIA keynote with Dan Hesse (Sprint's CEO) and Bill Morrow (
Clearwire's CEO), the latter noted that he wasn't interested in waging a war with LTE, suggesting that his spectrum is "designed and built so we can add on LTE should we need to." 'Course, one would suggest that Clearwire's in no position to get angry with the standard that boasts larger industry support, but we digress. A few hours later during
Verizon's LTE roundtable, the carrier's CTO (Tony Melone) responded to an audience question related to LTE and WiMAX becoming one. His brutally honest opinion? It'll never happen, and the "only big happy family" he can think of is the 3GPP to LTE crew, of which Verizon Wireless is obviously a member. He wouldn't elaborate on the whys or whats, only noting that it was his frank opinion on the matter from his knowledge in the field, but we can't candidly say that we'd love for the war to rage on -- competition is stellar, but joined efforts to create a larger, more robust 4G network sounds a lot sweeter to our ears than the clanging of swords.
posted March 24th 2010 6:28PM
Sprint's reply to that rejection should be... HTC EVO 4G is being released next month. I can only wish.
@Torx i could go supersonic!!!
bad religion supersonic
HTC EVO 4G
Sometimes competition.. should bring completion as one!
@Bowsa Verizon should buy Clear.. then stop all support to the technology :)
I wish they all combined to create massive widespread 4g just for us now wouldn't that be sweet
@Alexpeegs
Yah and they can charge you like a psychopathic pony, wouldnt that be sweet?
Wow, he sounds and looks like a douche.
@HurricaneDC
looks like he could be Jay Leno's lil brother.....
Even if everything was lte they would still be separate anyways.... they might do the sprint/version roaming deal but they will make sure if you ever roam you will get next to no speed from it. All the telecoms have to make sure theirs looks as good as possible.
The best we could ever hope for is somebody non telecom (google, microsoft, cisco) coming in and making a nationwide wifi network that bypasses the telecom's completely.
@jagowar
Yeah, and if Google does it they'll give service away free! We'll all spend our entire waking lives clicking on Google ads! God I love the future.
@ECH Don't forget that Google is a shareholder of Clear...
Jay Leno...
@grapeDrank
Perhaps this is one reason we are behind the rest of the world! Heck I know many 3rd world countries that had a 3G Network before the networks here started implementing it. If both technology were to be combine it would be an all winner for everyone.
@nickcraze
really can you name me a few? I seriously don't know
@KULawHawk Mexico.
Uh, yeah.
There's just no way in hell Verizon (or any US teleco) would miss a chance to lock people into their service. Making a standard broadband wireless format is their worst nightmare: customers would have the ability to leave them if they found a better deal elsewhere.
Plain and simple, the best thing for consumers is for the telecos to offer big, fast, dumb pipes and then let people choose their own services on top of that foundation. It gets rid of the ability to segment services out and soak customers. So of course it's the last thing in the world the telecos are going to offer. That's why you can't take your 3G phone from AT&T to T-Mobile (or any other kind of device portability). Everything in telecom makes sense when you understand that the businesses are incredibly hostile to the consumer.
@mullingit0ver
I could be wrong but doesnt switching to LTE standards ensure cross compatibility? I mean, once both AT&T and Verizon move to LTE and TMobile later down the line shouldnt all phones be changeable between carriers? The only difference would be frequency and almost all of todays phones today are tri or quand band.
@arnavdesai Frequency is not the only difference. AT&T and T-Mo use GSM while Verizon and Sprint use CDMA, two totally different network standards.
@mullingit0ver Businesses are not hostile to the consumer...... They are in business to make money. Complain all you want but I bet you have a cell contract with one of them. Your option is don't use a cellphone.
@gcoz That's true. But with your thinking maybe companies should start charging $10000000000000000000 for service and who cares, if you dont want to pay for it you dont need to use it. RIGHT?
@aschettler you're dumb.. lte will bring cross compatibility between carriers for devices.. if the carriers choose to let them that is
It'll never happen - that being said, the ultimate loser in this case is the consumer who would greatly benefit from what would amount to a near deadzone-less 4G network.
Can't win'em all
That picture reminds me of MST3K.
Reminds me of when Verizon said no to the Iphone.
@coolblue830 Ya but some how I think they'll regret it less...
@coolblue830
Love the avatar!
The North American Wireless Cartel is not going to give into cross compatibility for the sake of customers. That's just stupid, its not how cartels work. You gotta control everything and limit the technology for it to work right. Bravo Verizon Wireless CTO, you really know you're cartel stuff! Need any more of my tax payer money?
Verizon must be very confident in their upcoming network.
Typical dinosaur telecom mentality!
Typical carrier BS.
Of course one of the biggest carriers doesn't want cross compatibility; it would cut into their revenue stream if consumers had the freedom to pick and choose the best service for their needs without device lock-in.
It's also typical of the FCC and Congress that they're too chicken-sh*t or too bought, to do anything about it.
Fact: big giant cartel companies hate, hate, hate free market choice. They love monopolies.
Verizon is good at saying No Way. Every carrier releases new hotness at this conference (except AT&T, but we all know their plight) and Verizon releases..... Skype..... and their own crApp store.
One standard has been established, please stick to it.
IEEE 802.16m
Thanking you.
WiMax is OFDM just like LTE its closely related standard.. and from what I understand Sprint and Clear have so much spectrum they will be fine.. No one needs Verizon, and in big business talk is even cheaper.. Didnt AT&T say that VZW's first LTE phones will be bricks yesterday lmao but HTC made a thin Wimax phone for Russia like over a year ago..
@Celz: With Verizon they could all share towers, save money, and spend some of that saved money to focus on smaller areas like where I live (soon used to) and increase reliability in cities.
@Celz
Yes, the HTC Max 4G released in Russia is damn small. VZW can indeed go to hell, but so be honest, so can AT&T.
Rooting for T-Mo's HSPA+ and Sprint's WiMax atm, since they're the next "in" thing, at least until LTE is perfectly good, out, and on people's hands.
@Celz
all these carriers are going to lte but. Its not going to make much of a difference WIMAX is allover the world right now. WIMAX is still everywhere. Just because usa carriers are going lte does not mean you are going to get bad coverage.
The only thing that is going tol hurt sprint is their in-building coverage at their 4g frequencies compared to vzw's is going to suck. That's the benefit of that nationwide 700mhz. Spectrum vzw bought. Great in building coverage, and wider coverage from each tower.
There are plenty of wars that rage on daily. This is one I'd rather see allied.
Man, before you guys say other stupid stuff, as someone who works on cell phones, you have to realize that it takes 100 engineers, tens of millions of dollars, and years to develop and integrate new cellular technology. Verizon has some, but not complete say in what chip manufacturers work on. So one good reason that Verizon says that this won't happen is because no one is out there working on a GSM+WCDMA+LTE+WiMax solution. For the most part, people think WiMax is a dead technology (everyone except Sprint, it would seem). Screw the customer, screw the carriers, if you want a tape player that plays VHS + Betamax, you're out of luck. Stop whining about it.
@rsteshenko
Yeah, thanks for the carriers' perspective...for those interested in it (eye roll). The short answer is: "shad' up monkey. Bend over and take it."
Next up, I'm going to ask for the perspective of HMOs, cable companies and every other cartel industry.
@rsteshenko well atually if wimax was dead tech they why would the rest of the world be using it ass.
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/02/17/wimax-growth-in-the-us-lags-worldwide-growth-explodes/
@rsteshenko When you say you work on cell phones you must mean that you sell them at the mall. Bill Morrow mentioned today, during Sprint's keynote, that there is already a company making LTE+Wimax chips.
@rsteshenko as "someone who works on cell phones" you ought to see how many countries and networks are using WiMAX:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deployed_WiMAX_networks
@rsteshenko
I hate when people say LTE is a dead tech. The old beta max analogy is ignorant. Beta-max tapes were never meant to be made by the company that makes the players. So wimax towers will work with wimax phones, just like Hyundai parts magically fit on Hyundai cars.
And have you been in a VZW store lately?? Samsung, LG, HTC, Motorola and every other major manufacturer besides RIM makes Sprint and Verizon phones seperate. There is only one phone that Sprint and VZW sell thats identical thats not a blackberry. So if every phone company ALREADY MAKES SPRINT AND VZW seperate how is Wimax vs. LTE gonna change anything???
Not to mention LTE WiMax dual mode chips are coming, every 3G GSM phone uses CDMA and TDMA, and Sprint released several CDMA/ Iden phones already.
Funny how people are calling the fastest growing 4G standard dead... LTE isnt even finished being born yet..
@rsteshenko Completely untrue... Someone could buy my Sony VHS VCR off me... So they arent totally screwed.
@HurricaneDC
Check the list of networks you sent and read it. They're mostly 802.16d (fixed old wimax versions...) not covering even 1 complete city per country. Wimax is used for broadband access where no instrastructure is present. Check the number of subscribers of WiMAX in the world... and look what they use WiMAX for... it's freaking fixed low capacity cheap connection.
Wimax it's not 4G. Please read 3GPP or 3GPP2. Neither LTE is 4G. This is the biggest scam for telecom consumers I've seen in my life.
Of course, there will never be WiMAX convergence to LTE. It's impossible. Both use OFDMA.. yes! so what??? The problem are patents and world's almighty telecom standard producer, 3GPP, which by no means need to be compatible to WiMAX. WiMAX is small, will survive in the US. But differently to what happened with CDMA IS-95, at least now you guys will have AT&T and Verizon, and if you're wise you can keep up with the rest of the world.
Check CES 2010 in Barcelona, the most important telecom event in the world... did you see any (at least 1) telecom provider even mentioning WiMAX? Analyze guys and touch ground.
@Johnny Tremaine
If you're going to be an ass, you might as well try reading what I wrote. I'm talking from the chip manufacturer's perspective, not the carrier. You do realize that Verizon doesn't actually manufacture anything themselves, right?
@Ricky
By work on cell phones, I mean develop them. Jesus, now I wonder why I'd bother to try and edumacate you people. No wonder there isn't much intelligent content here in the comments. You'd rather just belittle those giving you information than take the time to internalize what they're saying.
@contreras ok obviously u dont know a darn thing about wimax... the 802.16d is a software version that is UPGRADEABLE to the latest version... there deploying those towers that are UPGRADEABLE just like sprint... they alrdy have over 40mbps in labs sustainable on the new standard... if u need over 40mbps on a cell phone what are u doing... i bairly have that on my highest price home connection from cr@pcast... o and wimax and lte are compatable wimax works on the same freqs as lte for the most part so
@rsteshenko You didn't educate anyone. You said something that was false. And I showed you how it was false. You're not the only person who works in the tech sector btw.