LTE is the favourite as world's second biggest WiMAX network switches horses

While the next standard for mobile broadband connectivity isn't fully established, it's becoming increasingly obvious where the smart money is - and that's LTE. The latest nail in WiMAX's coffin is today's announcement from Russia's Yota network, the second biggest WiMAX network in the world,  that it is cashing in its chips and switching to LTE.

Yota connects approximately 300,000 users via its mobile broadband service; but the company is so convinced that LTE is the future that it is willing to spend in the region of $2 billion to migrate its services to the alternative technology. "The world's biggest operators and device makers such as Nokia and Samsung have chosen the LTE standard. Following the global trend, we are seeking to give our clients the best solutions," the company said.

In the race for the '4G' standard, WiMAX was the first to be completed, meaning that for early adopters - such as Yota, which has been running its network on WiMAX since 2008 - WiMAX was the only game in town. Since then, however, a great deal of time and money has been invested in LTE across  the industry, and with commercial LTE networks now a reality, WiMAX's early advantage counts for very little. Not only are more and more companies choosing to adopt LTE, but the focus has shifted sufficiently that Yota is willing to invest billions in making the switch.

The announcement means that US company Clearwire will be left running the only remaining WiMAX network of a significant size. And if it becomes apparent that Clearwire has backed the wrong horse, not only will its WiMAX investment be wasted, but it will also be left behind its US competitors who are already installing LTE networks.