The Battle Between WiMax and LTE

When I read about the battle between WiMax and LTE, I notice that all opinions just talk about technology pros and cons and exclude the view of the subscriber.
As a potential WiMax subscriber, I don't worry about underlying technology, I rather think of speed, easy access as well as transparent and flexible charging methods. WiMax would appeal to me personally much more straight forward and cheaper than an LTE offering from mobile operators, who also have a bad history of overcharging for their mobile data services.

We also need to acknowledge that subscribers today are used to much more advanced services than just calling and texting. We are talking social networking today, as well as other Mobile2.0 services. Maybe this time the battle of the standards will not be decided by technology, but rather by the speed with which Mobile2.0 services are rolled out to subscribers.

Btw, it took UMTS around eight years to be deployed on a large scale and in Asia some mobile operators just got 3G licenses this year. In this respect, WiMax may have a time window of 5-10 years to attract and marry subscribers.

Tags: Mobile2.0, charging, networking, social

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Comment by Alan J Weissberger on August 19, 2009 at 2:04am: Read my interview with Prof Odlyzko on Mobile Internet traffic trends. He does not think 4G will be deployed on a large scale for another 6 years.

http://www.wimax.com/commentary/blog/blog-2009/august-2009/mobile-internet-data-implications-for-the-wireless-industry-0816

I believe the real battle for the next few years will be mobile WiMAX (802.16e) vs 3G/ 3.5G.

Comment by Stefan Emunds on August 19, 2009 at 6:08am: I believe that too, and if the real battle is as you said, WiMax should win easily.

Comment by Paul Sergeant on August 19, 2009 at 7:52pm: I don't believe that there really is a battle between LTE and WIMAX except the ones created in the press and by some analysts to sell reports. In reality, mobile operators will deploy LTE (if and when it arrives in commercial form), and fixed and new operators will deploy WIMAX, because it exists today. The other key factor is that suitable spectum for WIMAX is generally not owned by mobile operators, so they won't deploy it anyway, and the fact that the LTE core evolves out of the 3G core, making it an easy option.

So group A will almost entirely go with one technology, group B will go other way, and subscribers won't care anyway. So where's the battle?

Comment by Alan J Weissberger on August 19, 2009 at 10:24pm: Agree 100% with Paul, there is no real battle between LTE and WIMAX. How many times must this be said (not only by me, but many other broadband wimax professionals)?

Comment by Stefan Emunds on August 20, 2009 at 2:17am: Are you sure, that you are not missing the view of the subscriber? Let's say there is an LTE operator and a WiMax operator, and they both want you as a subscriber, but you will only join one of them. There is the battle.