Comcast has been the swiftest of the three cableco backers of Clearwire to roll out Clearwire-based services, but Time Warner Cable (TWC) is turning up the heat now.
Its offering is branded Road Runner Mobile. CEO Glenn Britt said on the company’s Q4 results call. "I think there is going to be a whole array of products using these hybrid networks in the future. So this is the very early beginning, and I don’t know how to size the opportunity because I don’t think any of us really and fully imagine what the products are going to be," he said.
Britt added that TWC is considering a voice over WiMAX offering and working with Clearwire on that, but does not yet see any "crying demand" for it. "We have the capability if we actually need it. Right now, I don’t think we do," he said.
Another key future focus for TWC will be wireless video delivery. These sorts of ambitions are pushing Clearwire to think already about the next upgrade for its network, and it is likely to start testing the forthcoming next generation of the WiMAX standard — WiMAX2 — in about a year’s time.
WiMAX2 — based on IEEE standard 802.16m — will focus on achieving "true 4G" speeds while maintaining current range and coverage. It will reach the 120 Mbps downlink/60 Mbps uplink goal in an urban scenario and eventually go beyond that.
This article is extracted from the Wireless Watch report "Clearwire Gains Market Confidence as Others Eye Its Multi-Provider Model." To get a free copy of the report, ask research@paperboy.com to send you WW339. |
