We knew that Clearwire, which is currently busy deploying WiMAX across the country, would be conducting LTE tests in Phoenix, AZ some time this fall, and now the results are in.  Clearwire tested two different configurations of LTE while driving around the city of Phoenix: Time Division Duplex, using 20 MHz of spectrum, and Frequency Division Duplex, using 40 MHz of spectrum.  The Time Division test yielded speeds of 50Mbps down which, while impressive, pales in comparison to the Frequency Division test, which provided speeds of 90Mbps down and 30Mbps up.

These speeds are fantastic, no doubt, but we have to remember that we would never see numbers like these in real-world use.  Still, it'd be interesting to see just what kind of speeds that we could get using Clearwire's LTE.  Verizon has said that customers can expect speeds of 5-12Mbps when their LTE network goes live, and Clearwire's current WiMAX network offers speeds of around 3-6Mbps, with bursts of around 10Mbps (although these tests were conducted using twice as much spectrum than the current WiMAX network).  Clearwire hasn't said which technologies they'll be using in the future, and it'll be a tough decision.  Do they stick with WiMAX, which can eventually be upgraded to WiMAX2, or make the jump to LTE, which seems like it will be more widely used?  Which would you go with?

Via Engadget, FierceWireless