In an interview with the blog GigaOM, Ericsson CTO Hakan Eriksson reiterated the Swedish vendor's support for LTE and and said WiMAX was not a true 4G technology. The executive also said that there were numerous opportunities for Silicon Valley companies to take advantage of LTE--comments that come just days after the company announced a new division in San Jose that will focus on mobile broadband. 
"There are 400 million people using 3G (HSDPA/WCDMA) technologies today," Eriksson said. "There will be 70 million people using WiMAX in five years." Ericsson is counting on strong carrier support from the likes of AT&T, Vodafone and Verizon Wireless to propel LTE to the forefront. "It will be the same for LTE and WiMAX," he said, referring to GSM's worldwide advantage over CDMA technology. "In the end it will be about the economies of scale."
Eriksson said the advent of LTE will present Silicon Valley companies the opportunity to create Internet applications and adapt them for mobile broadband devices and platforms. "I hope we see Web browsers that are more capable and standardized to do better video and better gaming," he said. Ericsson's division in San Diego will focus on IP and broadband solutions, with research and development focused on mobile broadband and Internet convergence.
For more:
- see this GigaOM post
- see this Ericsson release
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