Vividwireless reveals Perth WiMAX network speeds

WiMAX or LTE?

Whilst they disagreed on a range of issues, neither Mercer or his former Telstra colleague wanted to be drawn on arguments being made between LTE and WiMAX as future standards.

"What does WiMAX that LTE doesn't?" the event's moderator asked.

"Not a lot, really," Mercer said. "What does the customer think? That's the question. The customer doesn't care really. Both [technologies] enable an experience that is qualitively different to some flavours of 3G - that is the equivalent of fixed products."

Mercer said that vividwireless would never attempt to compete with Telstra outside of the major cities, nor that wireless would completely replace fixed line connections. He doubted that any service provider could "guarantee" a 100 Mbps connection over a wireless network any time soon.

"Wireless will never satisfy the huge requirements in some future homes or of some businesses," he said.

"[But] at the moment it's clear that WiMAX meets our customers' needs."

Mercer predicted that over the next few years, some customers may look to wireless as their first choice connectivity option for its pure convenience, and choose fibre-based fixed connectivity as an option only when higher access speeds are required.