A spokesman for Verizon said that interoperability was "not something we are looking at."

But Glenn Lurie, AT&T's president of emerging devices, was more blunt, saying that even though AT&T was wirelessly enabling all types of devices, not just smartphones, WiMax was not in the mix. "At AT&T, it's all about Wi-Fi. We're not supporting WiMax," he said.

ABI analyst Kevin Burden said it might make some sense for AT&T and other LTE carriers to interoperate with WiMax, at least in terms of dual chipset in devices that will work on both standards. "What's it going to cost to add a WiMax capability to a phone? Maybe $10?" Burden said.

Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld . Follow Matt on Twitter at @matthamblen or subscribe to Matt's RSS feed . His e-mail address is mhamblen@computerworld.com .

in Computerworld's Mobile and Wireless Knowledge Center.