When WiMAX was first unveiled to the world it sounded absolutely extraordinary. It was going to be just like the WiFi we were all using in our laptops at the time, but with an insane amount of range and even faster data speeds. Intel was championing the technology and pitching it as a replacement to the 3G networks of yore. Fast forward a few years and networks operators all around the world have opted to go with HSPA+ and LTE, natural evolution paths to the 3G networks that are already in place today. Packet One Networks, a WiMAX operator in Malaysia that’s been operational for several years now and has over 280,000 customers, has just announced that they’re going to be transitioning to LTE, the TDD flavor that’s popular in China and is slowly starting to gain acceptance in Europe. They expect the transition to be complete by the end of 2012.
If this news sounds familiar then you probably remember Russian WiMAX operator Yota, who has over 350,000 customers as of 2010, announcing that they’ll be switching to LTE and providing coverage to Moscow and St. Petersburg, the two largest cities in the country, by the end of this year. Over on American shores we’re waiting for Clearwire’s official announcement that they’ll be switching to LTE. It’s been rumored that the switch has already begun, which wouldn’t be surprising since they’ve already confessed to doing some testing with LTE and hitting 90 Mbps download speeds. Clearwire has 4.4 million customers as of Q4 2010, which is a substantial number, so replacing all those modems and mobile phones is going to cost quite a bit of pocket money, money that they don’t have since they’re in debt up to their eyeballs.
We feel bad for Sprint/Clearwire. They bet the farm on a technology that no one loves all for the sake of being first to market. Here’s hoping they’ve learned their lesson and don’t bungle things up even further.