LTE vs WiMAX backward compatible?

[amw1972]

Ok...so we will be seeing LTE rolled out from Sprint in the not too distant future. What of the 4G phones that we have now...which runs on WiMax for 4G? Can someone explain it in layman terms? Should we sit and wait for the LTE enabled phones for 4G? or will our current crop of 4G devices be able to jump between the two standards with a firmware update?

[demonlordoftheround]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 8.12; MSIEMobile6.0) Sprint T7380)

Wimax and LTE are different technologies. Eventually you will need to make the jump to an LTE phone when Sprint makes the updated network available in your area. Probably still a ways off no matter what Dan Hesse announces.

[KIOWA69]

I agree with the above statement. They are not going to immediately phase out WiMax so we have a while to use our 4G phones, and not like LTE is going to be in that many spots, just the very LARGE markets at first, the places they make the most money of course, but we will have to eventually switch to an LTE phone to use that service, and I would bet a dollar that your phone will be outdated and ready for an upgrade by the time you'll need to worry about LTE, maybe a couple of upgrades lol.

[kevmo1965]

Now that sprint is switching to lte, wimax will be discontinued in 2013.