02/11/2010 By Cnet ( Source: news.cnet.com )

Clearwire edges toward 100Mbps wireless broadband

CHICAGO--Clearwire is getting near 100Mbps downloads on its LTE-based trial wireless network in Phoenix, a company executive said today.

During a keynote presentation here at the 4G World trade show, Michael Sievert, Clearwire's chief commercial officer, shared initial speed test results on a trial network the company has built in Phoenix to test the next generation of a 4G technology called LTE, or Long Term Evolution. Clearwire announced it was testing LTE network technology in Phoenix in August.

According to Sievert, the company has clocked download speeds at 50 megabits per second using 10MHz channels for up and down speeds. When using 20MHz channels, the speeds go up to 90Mbps. These speeds are significantly faster than the 3Mbps to 6Mbps average download speeds the company currently gets on its commercial network, which uses a competing technology called WiMax.

What's more, the trial LTE network is also faster than other networks using similar technology. Verizon Wireless, which is expected to launch its LTE network by the end of the year, has said it expects real-world download speeds of between 8Mbps and 12Mbps.

The ultra-fast speeds on the Clearwire LTE trial network are somewhat exaggerated due to the fact that these networks have no other users loading the network, which can affect performance. But the results still clearly show the evolution in wireless broadband, where speeds are constantly increasing.