ORR Technology, LLC

Can one 4G standard drive the future of mobile broadband?

During the final GSM World Congress in 2007, Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin used his keynote address to warn cellular technology providers that WiMAX was making in-roads and the cellular industry needed to quicken development of competing solutions. In February, the executive augmented his message (at the same event now called Mobile World Congress 2008) to call for WiMAX and 3GPP’s LTE (Long Term Evolution) technologies to merge into a single 3GPP project. Sprint’s Barry West responded during the WCAI conference in April to Sarin’s suggestion that LTE should be merged into WiMAX, since LTE doesn’t exist yet and WiMAX is available in many countries today.

The 3GPP Release 8 specification containing LTE isn’t slated for completion until end of 2008. Standards development organizations have waged this posturing battle for many years between developments that are led by either European or American constituents. Most are familiar with the Wi-Fi standards that evolved from the IEEE’s 802.11 standards effort. The 802.11 protocols won market favor over the HiperLAN program from ETSI. Uniquely, IEEE 802.16e-2005 and the ETSI HiperMAN equivalent are identical, harmonized standards approved by both camps. And did I mention that 3GPP is an ETSI program?

Intel has chimed in too. Read about their perspective on merging 4G standards at WiMax.com