Monday, March 26, 2007

Ericsson gives up on WiMAX

Mikael Persson, strategy and business development in Ericsson's Networks business unit is due to deliver a presentation titled "WiMAX, Why Indeed?" at the conference, being held in Dubai 16-17 April, and in the programme notes for the event Ericsson states: "Ericsson has chosen as of December 2006 to discontinue development in WiMAX infrastructure. This presentation will outline some of the key areas Ericsson considered before choosing to abandon this technology in favour of HSPA (high speed packet access). Specific areas for discussion include; historical lessons learnt around establishing a standard to achieving the mass market growth, comparison of physical performance of WiMAX versus HSPA and finally some poignant questions as to the commercial viability of WiMAX, given the ongoing success of HSPA and the needs this platform can deliver to, for operators, developers and end users alike both now and in the future."

Ericsson has just shot itself in the foot with this decision. Or has it?Could it be that LTE is so close to WiMAX that they are interchangeable?