IEEE is expected to approve the 802.16m mobile WiMAX standard, also known as WiMAX 2, this summer. Under laboratory conditions, WiMAX 2 can deliver a blazing 120Mbit/s down and 60Mbit/s up when using 4×2 MIMO antennas on a 20MHz-wide channel. In practical terms, WiMAX 2 will approximately double the speed of the current WiMAX technology. In an interview with Unstrung, Clearwire’s CTO John Saw said that Clearwire is going to review the new 802.16m standard but will not immediately adopt it. The wireless broadband company could begin testing WiMAX 2 sometime in 2011, with commercial deployment possible in 2012. Depending on the 4G market in 2010, though, customers may never see 802.16m hit their WiMAX connection as Clearwire has been very open about its ability to drop WiMAX and switch to LTE if the market favors LTE. Does it really matter whether Clearwire switches to WiMAX 2 or LTE as long as the connection is stable, the speeds are fast and the devices are numerous?
[Via DSL Reports]
