Clearwire today not only announced its second-quarter financial results but disclosed plans to conduct technology trials to test multiple coexistence scenarios between LTE and WiMAX.
Prior to today, the company hinted it would jump on the LTE bandwagon if it made sense, but today’s announcement is the first it has confirmed trials.
“Ultimately, consumers don’t care about technical acronyms, but they do care about quality and affordable Internet services that work where and when they want, and that’s what we’re focused on delivering,” said John Saw, Clearwire’s chief technology officer, in a press release. “Part of our technical due diligence at Clearwire is to be prepared to leverage a number of possible opportunities as we future-proof our network, and that’s the goal of these tests.”
Huawei Technologies and Samsung Electronics will be involved in the trials, and Beceem also will be collaborating with Clearwire during the trials. No other vendors were named but more are expected to emerge later.
The tests will be conducted in the fall and throughout early 2011 in Phoenix, Ariz., and will test across three key areas: FDD LTE, TDD LTE and WiMAX and LTE.
The company also restated its commitment to use WiMAX technology for its current 4G build plan. Because the company expects a significant number of LTE devices will be available in coming years, Clearwire says, it is conducting technical trials to determine how it could potentially add LTE technology to coexist with WiMAX.