Clearwire has reached some pretty astonishing download speeds in its most recent LTE tests. The service company hit 90Mbps download speeds in Phoenix, which leaves me wondering what the future of WiMax, or even WiMax 2 will be. Right now, Clearwire offers WiMax which usually averages around 3-6Mbps with peaks of up to around 9Mbps on a good day. These LTE tests look promising, and a completely different direction for the company.
According to Fierce Broadband:
Clearwire announced earlier this year it would test LTE technology, and Sievert said the carrier hasn’t yet made any decisions about its technological future.
“This is not something we have decided about, but that we’re actively testing,” he said.
Sievert said in Phoenix Clearwire is testing a WiMAX network alongside LTE network technology running in both 10×10 MHz and 20×20 MHz network configurations via equipment from Samsung and Huawei. He said Clearwire recorded download speeds of 50 Mbps in the 10×10 configuration, and 90 Mbps downloads (and around 30 Mbps uploads) in the 20×20 configuration.
Does anyone else think that it’s a big, steaming, heaping load when Clearwire says it hasn’t made a decision just yet? Thought so.
You don’t go actively testing a new technology that may require major infrastructure tweaks if you’re just going to be wishy-washy about it. Additionally, seeing these kinds of ridiculous speeds are faster than what we currently see, on average, with WiMax 2 — around 40Mbps. Although we have seen WiMax 2 hit 330Mbps in testing in Japan. Still, LTE is looking more like the future of 4G technology if we’re talking about ubiquity here.
But Clearwire also had this to say:
“What you have here is something massively different,” [CCO Mike Sievert] said. “This is a strategy for us to stay ahead.”
Sievert also said that Clearwire is benefiting from the additional WiMax technologies in the market, but make no mistake about his assessment regarding LTE and the company’s test results — it is a strategy for them to stay ahead.
[Via: Fierce Broadband]