Ericsson: 'The jury is still out on WiMAX'

In a meeting with BetaNews Tuesday, Ericsson said that HSPA is a more compelling wireless broadband solution than WiMAX, which it believes has yet to be proven in the marketplace.

Ericsson launched its embedded module business last year to compete with Qualcomm, which had dominated the industry for wireless broadband chips. The Swedish company, part of the GSMA, is backing High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) technology, which rivals both existing EV-DO services and WiMAX.

In the United States, AT&T offers 3G services using HSPA, and the technology is currently deployed in 71 countries. Although such broadband services have seen limited adoption, Ericsson believes they will soon reach the price point that spurs huge growth: $30 per month.

In turn, Ericsson is banking on supplying embedded modules for notebooks, and is in discussions with major manufacturers such as Dell and Lenovo. A number of laptop makers have embedded Qualcomm's HSPA and EV-DO chips, and Ericsson expects to join the ranks this year.

The company is currently beta testing a PCI Express module that features tri-band HSDPA/UMTS/EDGE support with speeds up to 7.2 Mbps. Although AT&T's network only supports 3.6 Mbps, the operator is going to make the upgrade this summer, Ericsson said, which will require only software updates.

Ericsson expects HSPA to reach speeds of 24 Mbps downstream and 5.8 Mbps upstream in trials later this year, with 42 Mbps/12 Mbps support in 2009. LTE, the successor technology, could bring about 158 Mbps downstream and 52 Mbps upstream by 2010. Verizon plans to begin LTE trials later this year.

Is Ericsson worried about new "4G" competition from WiMAX? "The jury is still out on WiMAX," remarked Magnus Kristersson, head of product management at the company.

Ericsson's mobile broadband PCI Express module alongside an iPhone