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Technology Stocks : The *NEW* Frank Coluccio Technology Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peter Ecclesine who wrote (36705)	11/14/2010 12:03:09 AM
From: Rob S.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 46821

Thanks Peter. This problem had the door opened to T-Mobile, MetroPCS, Ericsson and others who have taken to calling HSPA+ '4G' by the unwitting enthusiasm of WiMAX operators. Sprint-Clearwire and a few other operators lesser known to the western media have called IEEE 802.16e (WiMAX 1, 1.5) '4G'. I had advised against that and for this to be called something like the 'evolution pathway to 4G' with the small print saying "WiMAX uses the new framework of technology defined by ITU as "True 4G" under the IMT-Advanced standard. The decision to call the standard accepted into the IMT-2000 3G family as 4G, while based in the logic that it used similar MIMO-OFDMA building blocks, now makes it difficult for WiMAX operators to object. Furthermore, the focus on bandwidth has left the door open for T-Mobile to argue that HSPA+ delivers '4G bandwidth'. Of course, both WiMAXe and HSPA+ do not deliver on the goals for IMT-Advanced but they are roughly comparable in peak bandwidth. Although white papers, technical discussions including my own have gone into what is expected for the evolution of networks to achieve 'True 4G', these failed to get distilled down into a vision exposed to the general public for the sake of marketing expediency. This makes it difficult for ITU to do more than reiterate their definitions for 'True 4G'. They have no legal authority or prerogative that I have seen to call an operator out publicly, let alone sue them (I don't know what grounds anyone has to sue over this issue since WiMAXe operators have muted the damage). Samsung came out with a statement not long ago touting a demonstration of future technology as '5G'. Why not call it 50G and get 50-100 years ahead of everyone else?! ; ^) If marketing heads would ask simple questions and then not ignore the answers the engineering department comes back with, both WiMAX and LTE would not be in this mess.