T-Mobile says WiMAX "niche," LTE can wait
updated 03:50 pm EDT, Fri October 1, 2010
T-Mobile downplays importance of 4G upgrade
T-Mobile USA is not rushing towards getting a WiMAX network of its own, a company representative said Thursday. The carrier's chief network office, Neville Ray, went as far as to tell BusinessWeek that WiMAX "is really a niche play" and that the carrier will look at LTE for a 4G network when the time is right. Ray also said LTE will have a richer ecosystem than WiMAX, wich in the US is limited to Clearwire and Sprint.
Until it's ready to build out its own or license a 4G network, T-Mobile will continue to offer its 42Mbps HSPA+ network, which Ray says is comparable in speed or better to 4G network offerings of today.
Clearwire said it was engaged in negotiations with T-Mobile last week, though no details on the talks were revealed. Ray did not say when T-Mobile may begin offering 4G in the US, and also didn't rule out an agreement with Clearwire to use WiMAX.
