So much rubbish on LTE/WiMAX in Media

Ever since the 3G/BWA auctions started, the media has been hyper-excited and reporters are making outlandish claims regarding what 3G/BWA technologies can (and can't) do. Yesterday, after the BWA auctions were over, mainstream business and news channels had so-called experts still talking as if BWA and WiMAX are one and the same thing. Then, I happened to see some news articles which I found some amusing stuff.

Sample 1: Economic Times

LTE is a technology patented by Qualcomm, like CDMA for cellular telephony which is what Reliance chose when it started services under Mukesh Ambani. Reliance Communications has since launched parallel services in GSM.

Using this technology the company will needs to deploy fewer base stations, or points from which wireless signal is emitted because a single point covers 50 km on an average. “RIL will save on both tower leasing costs and electronic equipment cost,” said a regional telecom head at an international research firm.

Sample 2: Business Standard

LTE would have faster data speeds as compared to WiMax. Besides, voice services can also be launched through LTE and it would have a wider coverage area.

Sample 3: Business Standard

As BWA spectrum ensures higher speeds, it can support even voice calls. The high bids indicate broadband is not the only objective. “The bidding is being done for the spectrum as a whole, with just a BWA business plan now,” said Mrityunjay Kapoor, country head, Protiviti India. Experts also believe that using BWA spectrum for voice can lead to more efficient use of the spectrum.

This is just a small sample and such nuggets of information are spread all across the news pages. Is this down to lazy journalism or do we have a shortage of real experts on wireless technologies?