Friday, October 16, 2009

4G and LTE

Several of you have asked about LTE versus WiMAX. From a technical point of view, the radio protocols have more in common than not. For instance, they both use OFDM and support advanced antenna technologies and modulation techniques. The uplinks are different, but on the whole, the protocols are similar. So, the natural question that follows is why would a carrier choose one versus the other given the similarities? The ecosystem should play a significant factor in deciding which to deploy. At a high level, I define ecosystem as the number of infrastructure providers, device providers, and middleware providers that support the protocol. Obviously, the larger and more developed the ecosystem, the better the cost curves, ongoing support, and new product development, to name a few. Following is a link to an analyst's view on LTE versus WiMAX.


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