| Personally, I am with WiMAX in terms of its openness, interoperability and other potentials. LTE is yet to be born and will be commercially available around 2015. On the other hand, WiMAX has got a big success in South Korea and was incorporatted into ITU standard last year. The future of LTE is uncertain now becasue it is yet to be born. What a silly idea that ATT&T and Verizon boast of unborn babies.
WiMAX or LTE, mobile carriers are to gradually lose their market muscle since convergence of telecom, media, entertainment and advertising industries into mobile multimedia is dynamically under way. Besides, Nokia's upstream initiative, based on GPS, mobile gaming and multimedia networking advantages, will choke mobie carriers'
product portfolio strategy. Google's OHA alliance and other mobile platforms will significantly weaken carriers' gatekeeper status. Technology affilication may set the future of corporate giants. AT&T and Verizon have got plenty of time until they may start deploying 4G networks and may switch from LTE to a newer 4G or whatsoever later on. And even SK Telecom, one of the two commercially successful WiMAX carriers, has already advanced into US territory in the name of Helio, waiting until a tipping point pops up. Rumors are Intel will pump $2 billion into the Sprint/Clearwire deal, but late last year SK Telecom offered a $5 billion investment to Sprint. It remains to be seen whether telecom oligarchy will last nd until when. |
