CurrentCast - Observations and Thoughts from Huawei’s 2011 Global WiMAX & LTE Development Forum

Huawei has just concluded its second annual WiMAX & LTE Development Forum in San Francisco, California. Unlike last year’s event, this year’s forum added a focus on LTE, or more specifically on TD-LTE. This addition recognizes a growing market trend: for many WiMAX operators, their network future will include a convergence with TD-LTE. Here, “convergence” essentially means deploying a TD-LTE network. Some operators, such as Packet One in Malaysia, have already taken the initial steps in deploying a TD-LTE network on top of their WiMAX networks. However, for many WiMAX operators, this convergence is not so clear or so imminent.

The following reports address the challenges and options confronting WiMAX operators and suppliers:

• ZTE’s TD-LTE Interoperability Testing Pushes the Technology Closer to the Mainstream, July 13, 2011 | Client Access
• Ericsson Goes Big with TD-LTE in Australia, June 2, 2011 | Client Access
• WiMAX Coexistence: Going Forward in an LTE World, March 29, 2011 | Client Access

Most operators do not seem to have much concern with the “why” behind convergence, as the evolution of the WiMAX standard to 802.16m appears to have stalled. This leaves operators using unpaired or TDD spectrum little choice but to go with LTE TDD. The question for many is “when” or how fast will TD-LTE get here. Operators which have yet to deploy anything question whether they should just wait for TD-LTE to mature or go ahead and deploy WiMAX now. Operators holding spectrum in 3.5GHz are especially concerned, as most current convergence efforts are focused on lower bands. Operators controlling access to these bands are concerned that TD-LTE development for their needs will be late coming, and they fear being left stranded on WiMAX with little to no ecosystem support.

Along with those ecosystem concerns, questions of device support (i.e., single-mode TD-LTE, multi-mode TD-LTE/WiMAX, and TD-LTE/FDD LTE) were an important topic for all operators. Device support can make or break an operator no matter what decision they ultimately make on their network build. Of course, underlying this whole convergence conversation is the question: “Is WiMAX dead?”

What follows is a conversation between Ron Westfall (Research Director, Service Provider Infrastructure) and Daryl Schoolar (Principal Analyst, Mobile Access) exploring these themes.

| Client access - Report in Mobile Access Infrastructure |