Clearwire announces 4G LTE network

Everybody is jumping onto the LTE bandwagon. Verizon started it late last year, and AT&T announced its plans earlier this year, now we have one more LTE network popping up – this time it’s from Clearwire, the folks that introduced the nation’s first “4G” network with WiMAX back in 2009. This announcement comes after successful completion of its 4G technology trials that were said to bring download speeds exceeding 120 Mbps.

Clearwire will be deploying its LTE network in densely populated, urban areas of its existing 4G markets – where current 4G usage demands are high. Clearwire’s LTE network will be “LTE Advanced-ready” meaning that it will use an ultra-high-capacity spectrum configuration that is superior to the typical configuration of the slower, more capacity-constrained commercial LTE network designs in the United States of today.

With its existing WiMAX network that covers approximately 132 million people but only serves 7.65 million customers, Clearwire hopes to end the year with approximately 10 million 4G customers when it introduces its LTE network. No word on when Clearwire will be kicking off the network’s launch, but it US consumers will be glad to know that they’ll have even more choices when it comes to picking a 4G network in the future.

[Press Release]

George Wong
Categories: General
Tags: 4G, announcements, clearwire, LTE, network