Clearwire has been the first of the so-called “4G” networks to begin building an advanced wireless data network, but it has gone with the WiMAX technology instead of the more popular LTE technology that the major carriers have embraced.
That has changed. Intel, one of its biggest investors and proponent of WiMAX, has changed the terms of its deal with Clearwire. The carrier won’t be required to be a WiMAX-only operation until 2012. Now it can adopt LTE wireless technology immediately if it wants to. So what does this mean? Enterprise Mobile Today finds out.
Clearwire, the nation’s first 4G carrier and a standard-bearer for the WiMAX technology championed by the likes of Intel and Sprint, may be pondering a defection of sorts to the rival Long-Term Evolution (LTE) camp.
Company executives dropped the bombshell during their quarterly earnings call, saying they that they have changed the terms of their agreement with Intel, one of Clearwire’s (NASDAQ: CLWR) largest investors, so the wireless provider is no longer bound to just the WiMAX technology. Under the original terms of the agreement, Clearwire had to use WiMAX exclusively until February 2012.
