Russian wireless broadband pioneer Yota says that it is dropping WiMax in favor of Long Term Evolution (LTE) for new deployments, in this week's summary of the big news for the proto-4G specification.

Yota said Friday that it plans to spend $100 million on the rollout of LTE networks in five Russian cities in 2010, instead of sticking with the WiMax technology that it had been working with. Reuters reports that the operator is planning to deploy LTE in 15 cities over time.

By dumping WiMax in favor of LTE, Yota is doing what comparable US carriers have only so far talked about. Clearwire LLC (Nasdaq: CLWR) and Sprint Nextel Corp.  have both expressed interest in deploying LTE instead of WiMax in the future, but neither has laid out any actual roadmap for such a change yet.

Thanks lightreading for the update

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