Clearwire planning a WiMAX to LTE transition?

BANGALORE, INDIA: On one hand where cash and investment crunch is bothering US telecommunications service provider Clearwire, on the other decline in WiMAX supporters has afftected this one time huge WiMAX proponent's business.

Clearwire's two major investors, Intel and Google, have made their intentions clear on WiMAX and have said that they will be supporting LTE.

The company also suffered a loss in the first quarter of 2010, and went into a lean mode through out the year to cut down its expenditure.

Also Read: NSN Alcatel and now Cisco: Is WiMAX losing grounds?

How so ever, it is very bullish about its future and says that it has cash to sustain the next twelve months, reports CNET.

In an interview with CNET Clearwire Chief Operating Officer Erik Prusch said that the company understands the need for LTE network, as it moves forward, and is in talks with Sprint about sharing the latter's network assets as it will be expensive for it to build a nation-wide LTE network on its own.

He also added that though Intel and Google's are not keen in investing in Clearwire, he is optimistic that they 'have not lost confidence in Clearwire's business'.

The report also says, "Clearwire will eventually move away from its WiMAX technology and move toward a network that uses LTE. However, the plans are not definite and there is no timeline for such a switch. LTE technology and the ecosystem needs to mature before Clearwire can consider switching."

"WiMax to date has been a very good technology choice for us," he said. "We were able to take advantage of the speed to market before LTE was even a glimmer in anyone's eye. But we recognize the ecosystem in the U.S. will be larger for LTE than WiMax, so we are conscious of that," said the executive.