May 27, 2008

"I don't think it's ready for prime time," Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin said at the 2007 3GSM show in Barcelona. "To get all puffy and excited about it today is too much, too soon," he concluded.

The object of Sarin's disaffection, of course, was WiMAX.

A year later, Sarin changed his tune. The Vodafone CEO went so far as to suggest WiMAX should find a home within the LTE standard: "The issue for me is simply resources in our industry: We only have a finite number of R&D engineers and we split them into three camps, then we would be diluting what we can do in the future. LTE standard is an encompassing standard, an accommodating standard--and as I said a few moments ago--there is a TDD section that I think WiMAX could fit into."

Today, perhaps the most vocal critic of WiMAX technology has stepped down from his post. At the top of his game, Arun Sarin announced his resignation after five years of manning the helm at Vodafone. While his legacy will mostly center on the Vodafone brand's successful push into emerging markets, the WiMAX community will also remember his contentious comments, which stoked the budding LTE vs. WiMAX race.

While Sarin's resignation has given many in the wireless industry cause for pause, Caroline Gabriel reports on a potential delay in the UK's 2.6GHz spectrum auction, which could mean trouble for WiMAX deployments in that country. Will BT still bid in the event of a delay? What about T-Mobile? Read on for the play-by-play and analysis.

Brian Dolan
Editor, WiMAX Trends
editor@wimaxtrends.com