WiMAX: a Better Option than 4G Networks?WiMAX: a Better Option than 4G Networks?

Speed, no matter how much a company provides to its users, they often desire more. As mobile applications become more pervasive and more sophisticated, small and medium businesses need ways to boost wireless bandwidth. In the short term, WiMAX is in a better position to provide extra bandwidth than cellular networks, according to market research firm In-Stat.The company expects Long Term Evolution (LTE), the next-generation cellular broadband standard, to gain significant traction. However, several factors will slow deployment of this network option for the next few years. Carriers recently invested significant funding in 3G network technology, such as HSPA and HSPA+, and want to leverage those investments. The 4G technology is experiencing technical issues, such as its signal-to-noise ratio. In addition, there is a lack of additional spectrum available to cellular carriers, and the underlying infrastructure is still emerging. User components, such as dongles, network cards, and USB dongles, will start to arrive this year, but LTE mobile handsets are not expected to start shipping in volume until 2012.

WiMAX has already navigated its way through such problems. Equipment is available and services have been rolled out by carriers, such as Clearwire. Consequently, In-Stat anticipates that even by 2013, Mobile Wi-Max will have more than five times as many global subscribers as LTE.

So what does this mean to small and medium businesses? In many cases, employees now have sufficient bandwidth to run their mobile applications and that may not change dramatically in the near term. So waiting for LTE to evolve is a viable option. However, in certain cases, such as deployment of video applications, companies may need more bandwidth than what is available with cellular services. In those instances, the business may want to take a closer look at WiMAX services.