Featured Video: Global WiMAX Business Development Forum

HONOLULU – WiMAX operators have a first-to-market advantage today, regardless of which technology paths some may choose tomorrow, according to panelists speaking at the Global WiMAX Business Development Forum held in Honolulu in May.
Day One sessions featured a diverse range of WiMAX operators including Clearwire Corp., a Pakistani operator named Wi-tribe and a just-out-of-the gate operator in Australia called vividwireless. WiMAX technology is delivering on all four cylinders – price, capacity, speed and Quality of Service. And despite this being a WiMAX forum, operators were quick to acknowledge that LTE-based services likely will dominate in the future, but don’t see that as a death knell to their business operations. While some operators likely could move to LTE technology at some point in the future, if they have proper spectrum and it makes financial sense to do so, others will continue to use WiMAX technology to meet their customers’ needs. Indeed, one of the key takeaways from the day was that operators are going to make technology choices based on their own individual circumstances – spectrum position, price, target customers and of course, politics – but there was little talk of technological superiority of one fourth-generation technology vs. another.