CLEAR HOLDING LTE TRIALS; SAYS WiMAX STILL BEST

Clearwire's talking more about some of the glorious numbers it's seeing as it drives around the greater Phoenix area testing its trial LTE network, and we think one specific quote pretty much sums it up: "this isn't your grandfather's LTE." That statement was made in comparing Clearwire's results -- bumping up against 90Mbps in some configurations -- to the 5 to 12Mbps that Verizon is quoting for its first-gen commercial LTE network, though they're quick to note in the same breath that Clear's test is on an unloaded network without a deluge of users all trying to stream professional sports games in HD at the same time. What does that all mean for Clear's existing WiMAX deployment? The company's as noncommittal on the subject as ever, saying only that WiMAX continues to be "best for the customer" today but that "potentially in the future that could be WiMAX and LTE." Needless to say, though, they're taking the LTE option pretty seriously if they're dumping serious cash into testing it out and publishing the results.