LTE Upgrades Not More Expensive Than WiMax

Okay, I'm a WiMax booster. I like it when WiMax gets good press. However, I don't like misinformation, no matter which side it takes. So when InformationWeek posits dualband LTE/WiMax handsets (which would be a good idea) but then says that:

Verizon's decision to go with LTE was particularly telling since that route represents a much more expensive, rip-and-replace approach than WiMax would have been

then I have to take umbrage, since that's wrong.

WiMax is a wholly new technology, based on OFDMA and IP. It's not in anyone's upgrade path, unless you're talking about going to mobile WiMax from fixed WiMax, but even that is what they call a "forklift" upgrade-- you take the old equipment out, and you wheel the new equipment in, since they don't share any components. New MSS, new RSS, new antennas, new ACR, new EMS. All new.

This is true for both WiMax and LTE. LTE is also a forklift upgrade. It is presented in the light of an "upgrade" from UMTS or CDMA2k, but it isn't. It also means new components.

So saying that WiMax is a cheaper upgrade might seem to compliment the technology, except here it is used to disparage it, suggesting that Verizon (a CDMA operator) chose it despite that disadvantage. That's not true. They chose it because many other incumbent mobile operators are choosing it, because the equipment vendors they've used in the past are choosing it-- but not because it isn't a forklift upgrade, because it is. You can't just update the firmware of a CDMA base station and get LTE. It's big bucks either way.

If anything, incumbent operators probably choose LTE because WiMax has no native voice bearer-- it's all IP, so you have to implement VOIP to get any voice functionality at all. That may be fine with some operators-- which is why WiMax appeals more to ISPs looking to go mobile and get into voice than it does to CDMA and UMTS operators who already derive most of their revenue from voice and are just looking for higher data speeds without changing vendors or abandoning the technology they know.

Another reason may be the schedule. WiMax is here now, but in the current financial climate not many operators may be interested in expensive upgrades, and not many customers may be interested in the new value-added services those upgrades enable. So the fact that there won't be any LTE deployments until 2010 probably doesn't bother them.