4G LTE will be larger than 4G WiMAX, says Sprint CEO

One of the biggest announcements from CTIA this week was the HTC EVO 4G Android-based smartphone, which will use the Sprint 4G WiMAX service (provided by Clearwire). Even though the device is quite impressive with its specifications, and Sprint will be first to the scene with 4G customer-deployment, it appears that even the Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has to take notice of LTE, which Verizon, MetroPCS, and AT&T will use. Hesse says that "LTE will likely be the larger of the two 4G standards". So it appears that it is important for Sprint to be the first to provide 4G service and a compatible smartphone to customers that will run on the WiMAX service, even though the footprint will not be as large as LTE is projected to be. Hesse's comments also make it sound like they aren't forgoing the possibility of adding LTE in the future, as he states they can "always add other technologies later if need be".  So will Sprint add LTE later on? Possibly, as it depends on the competition. Remember, Verizon stated this week that they'll cover one-third of the US with LTE service by the end of year with 25-30 markets, which will double in 15 months, and have full nationwide coverage by the end of 2013. Furthermore, Verizon will offer data-devices first (aircards, USB modems), but is expected to have a 4G LTE smartphone out the first-half of next year...so maybe it will be the big news of CES or CTIA 2011?

source: gizmodo

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