Home WiMAX News Clearwire Tests LTE Technology In Phoenix

Clearwire Tests LTE Technology In Phoenix

Thursday, 04 November 2010 19:32 News
According to Broadcast Engineering, Clearwire has been testing both LTE and WiMAX in Phoenix, AZ. COO Mike Sievert mentioned that the company is seeing huge growth in mobile video usage over its network, and Clearwire recently recorded peak download speeds of 90Mb/s in closed tests. Considering they originally stated that their WiMAX network offered an average download speed of 3Mb/s of 6Mb/s, these closed tests were very impressive. They used a combination of 20Mhz X 20Mhz to achieve the faster data rates, which is possible because of the amount of spectrum (available frequency) that Clearwire has available.

Clearwire currently has between 120-150Mhz of wireless spectrum available, which gives them greater flexibility to test different configurations. Earlier this week we noted that Sprint's CEO Dan Hesse said "our 4G strategy is WiMAX, full stop". This means that although Clearwire (which is partially owned by Sprint) is testing LTE, they have no plans to switch to this technology and abandon WiMAX. With 61 WiMAX markets available today, they've already got a substantial investment into the WiMAX infrastructure. It will be interesting to see what type of innovations they take with their 4G network and if they decide to sell off some of their spectrum to help further build out their WiMAX network.
Related Links: