Threesome, still no choice in Swingers Club

While many join the swingers club, some stick to one. While some prefer to do it slowly, others tell us to cut the bull and get on with it. Before you make the cut, consider a sexier option, if there is one. Coming ahead of P1’s shout to cut to WiMax will be 4G wireless broadband called LTE.

While many carriers around the world are planning 4G networks, for our only 3 wireless operators, having built their networks using the global standard GSM, the current 3G wireless technology called HSPA still has some legs left. If a lot of Malaysians make the same choice as I do to ignore the shout to cut to WiMax, by end of 2010, WiMax could be dead.

Celcom, Maxis and Digi have not stopped shouting about being the fastest and widest wireless broadband as they all continue to provide mediocre speed and while many of us swing from one to the other. They may likely upgrade existing infrastructure with the latest 3G wireless technology, HSPA Plus, to increase speed. HSPA Plus will match the speeds of current 4G such as WiMax. Current 3G HSPA offers download speeds less than 700 Kbps, but typically I get less than 100 Kbps.

4G WiMax download speed is between 4 Mbps and 6 Mbps, about the same as HSPA Plus’ speed. WiMax’s slow rollout and lack of mobile devices such as WiMax embedded phones will eventually kill it. Nokia, one of the initial backers of WiMax, cancelled its N810 WiMax Edition tablet and no one is likely to develop such devices until WiMax network is more extensive.

Because there is little difference in speed between WiMax and HSPA Plus, many operators worldwide are opting to invest in upgrading to HSPA Plus while planning to eventually migrate to LTE. This means that we’ll be getting a lot of 3G HSPA Plus mobile devices in 2010, but probably not too soon in Malaysia as our operators are typically slow in rolling out advanced technology.

Assessing the 4G landscape, LTE or Long Term Evolution, is likely to dominate over WiMax. Some experts say initial speed will exceed 4 Mbps and expected to be within 15 Mbps to 20 Mbps. Elsewhere, AT & T, Verizon and T-Mobile will be launching their LTE networks in 2010 and 2011. It's OK if you've made the cut. Expect MCMC to put their act together about LTE in a decade from now.

While we Malaysians, will continue to be contented with whatever slow networks the 3 telcos provide us. And we really don't have a choice, even with 3 operators, they're all the same.