Ready for broadband wireless access? Do you want it today, or next week, or next month? That’s great, because it’s ready for you, in the form of 4G. Or, you can wait a while … several month at the very least … for LTE.
There’s a debate out there about who’s better, and debates are good. But maybe you need broadband wireless to support your immediate enterprise needs. Maybe you want a portable solution that can be set up and taken down quickly, for one site or for dozens. And maybe you want it this summer, and the telco isn’t quite fast enough to get it done.
If any of those maybes apply to your company, your choice is putting your needs on hold pending the arrival of LTE, or taking advantage of 4G right now. It’s real and it’s available, and it’s ready for prime time. But then, you might have doubts about broadband wireless, and that’s understandable.
After all, you only have to look back a few years to find lots of companies that were going to do broadband wireless access. But at that time, the technology wasn’t really ready, nor were the customers. The essential market problem hadn’t been solved.
Times have changed. Now we can say that we’re seeing a confluence of the technology and the need, and they’re coming together in a perfect timing for 4G. Like Teri Hatcher’s line in a famous Seinfeld episode, it’s real and it’s spectacular.
4G is a low-footprint solution, and the pricing is in line with what customers expect for this type of solution. We’ve solved the endpoint security problem, with access not just to the Internet but to your corporate WAN. The network itself is ready and the complementary services are there as well.
We’re seeing a resurrection of that old argument about Beta vs.VHS. It’s a tired metaphor, but that’s what some companies are falling back on as they try to position LTE vs. 4G. And like we say, that’s a fine argument to have once LTE is as available as 4G is … several years from now.
For now, I think a better metaphor is this: If you find a $50 bill on the ground, are you going to wait to pick it up until you find two of them? The bottom line is simple … if you need a solution now, 4G is it.
-Steve
