Clearwire has announced that it intends to support LTE Advanced within its core network infrastructure by building on its recently concluded Phoenix, Arizona based trials and entering into new agreements with wholesale partners ahead of an eventual commercial launch within the next 18-24 months.
The current WiMax cellsite network will be upgraded with LTE Advanced equipment in preparation for the rollout of LTE, but the company stresses that it will continue to support WiMax and that the move to add LTE Advanced compatible equipment is meant to expand its wholesale business.
Clearwire’s current spectrum holdings, once fully deployed using LTE Advanced will allow it to surpass current FDD LTE based networks utilized by both Verizon Wireless and MetroPCS by allowing for speeds of up to 120Mbps on the downlink and 25Mbps on the uplink using a TDD based LTE network using 2×2 and 4×4 MIMO antennae arrays along with 20MHz channels for data transmission on the 2.5GHz band, much wider than the current 10MHz channels for data transmission used by both Verizon Wireless and MetroPCS for deliving LTE access to their customers on their respective transmission bands.
This means that Clearwire has chosen LTE Advanced as its future 4G standard for wholesale access while currently supporting 4G WiMax services ahead of the eventual transition and for the foreseeable future as the consumer level offering, with the goal to sell LTE access to MVNOs for resale and businesses looking for high bandwidth high capacity data access with low latency. Â Below, comments from the executive team.
“Clearwire plans to raise the bar again for mobile broadband service in the United States,” said John Stanton, Clearwire’s Chairman and interim CEO. “Our leadership in launching 4G services forced a major change in the competitive mobile data landscape. Now, we plan to bring our considerable spectrum portfolio to bear to deliver an LTE network capable of meeting the future demands of the market.”
“This is the future of mobile broadband,” said Dr. John Saw, Clearwire’s Chief Technology Officer. “Our extensive trial has clearly shown that our ‘LTE Advanced-ready’ network design, which leverages our deep spectrum with wide channels, can achieve far greater speeds and capacity than any other network that exists today. Clearwire is the only carrier with the unencumbered spectrum portfolio required to achieve this level of speed and capacity in the United States.”
“In addition, the 2.5 GHz spectrum band in which we operate is widely allocated worldwide for 4G deployments, enabling a potentially robust, cost effective and global ecosystem that could serve billions of devices,” Saw added. “We anticipate that the economies of scale derived from this global ecosystem will act as a catalyst for the development of thousands of low-cost devices and applications. And, since we currently support millions of customers in the 2.5 GHz band, we know that our LTE network won’t present harmful interference issues with GPS or other sensitive spectrum bands.”
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So is Sprint going to offer this service? Or is Clearwire breaking away from Sprint?
I know Sprint announced an LTE deal with LightSquared. Are the 2 future networks going to be compatible? It seems like Clearwire took a shot at LightSquared with their GPS interference comment.
I am curious what all of this means for the consumer. Will the Evo 3D 2 have LTE running on 2 different LTE networks? And will it still have Wimax?
And how is Clearwire going to offer Wimax on the same spectrum they are offering LTE Advanced on?
This just raises so many questions.
Let me attempt to break this down as best I can, Phoneman:
1. The Sprint deal was done in order for LightSquared to have an infrastructure for its network, LightSquared’s own efforts to build out a terrestrial network resulted in a half-built mess with a lot of pissed off contractors. Sprint’s network was seen as ideal because since Sprint was already deploying its own multi-mode hardware with LTE anyway, on the idea that where Clearwire went network wise after the trials, Sprint would follow for its own transition from CDMA.
1a It’s been speculated that LightSquared’s LTE implementation is the same as Verizon’s and MetroPCS, but I’ve seen no hard evidence either way to make the call. In either case both LTE variants are compatible with each other, the only difference lies in how devices get access to the network and it depends on whether providers will allow each other’s devices to roam freely.
2. Sprint benefits from the LightSquared deal because they can transition from CDMA to LTE on its network without having to rely exclusively on Clearwire for network access they way they do now for WiMax, but its mostly a way for Sprint to get paid to finish out the Network Vision buildout without spending more of its own limited cash.
2a This isn’t Clearwire breaking away from Sprint, this is Clearwire trying to stand on its own while still being under the same corporate umbrella. I would think that Clearwire’s announcement was a way for them to draw more investors since the market is heading towards LTE and driving the point that it needs money for the new network to get built out.
3. LTE=WiMax in this case, since both are based on the same core OFDM tech, but it looks like they’ll both be running on concurrent sub channels of the same band for a good while, but the ultimate goal is to move everyone from WiMax to LTE service, let’s say in 2-3 years from the initial launch.