WiMax lost against LTE, says Alcatel Lucent

[zdnet] The mobile industry has clearly chosen LTE over WiMax for the next generation of mobile broadband connectivity, a senior Alcatel Lucent executive has said.

Patrick Plas, Alcatel Lucent's chief operating officer for wireless, said on Monday that the company is "not putting a lot of effort into this technology [WiMax] any longer", adding that upcoming LTE launches by companies such as Verizon showed "a clear direction taken by the industry towards LTE".

Plas is not the first to point out that LTE (the long-term evolution of 3G) is now firmly in the roadmap of most operators — even WiMax backers have acknowledged that their chosen technology is more likely to serve niche markets. It is, however, interesting to hear a telecoms hardware vendor, which still makes and markets WiMax equipment, say it.

According to Plas, LTE handsets are likely to start appearing at the start of 2011, but operators such as Verizon are more interested in data connectivity in the early stages of the technology.

WiMax lost against LTE, says Alcatel Lucent