*doh* Cisco Systems acquired Starent Networks. My earlier sentence incorrectly toggled the sentence wording!

Funny article, and even funnier to hear the gumboot manufacturer(ie: Nokia) talking about a 4G standard that is 3 years ahead "conservatively", of LTE (basic) deployments in Japan or Verizon. Heaven forbid, they are still arguing about "the how to" deliver voice services which is the MNO's core product (ie: google VoLGA wars).. Just to be clear, NEC is out front (just like with UMTS) for LTE readiness, and I would agree with the comment above that Motorola is close behind and a LONG WAY past the power point slide of what if and how to? But a bit of a shame about Starent buying Cisco from under their noses like Ericsson did with Redback! *ouch* A couple of industry shifts are happening already, especially when you hear Nokia is really tight with Alvarion who is rapidly becoming their unacknowledged WiMAX partner! It is all a game people, LTE+ will be superb when it arrives in 2012/13 but by then global constellations of "mobile" WiMAX in flavours of 802.16e and 802.16m will be mainstream. Nokia knows they are dead already, and Apple and Google are loving every minute of it. Personally,I have been shorting your stock since I first tested 802.16e WiMAX in Q2/2006 on a the back of a test van with a 15Mbits service profile @ 45MPH. It was NOT even a stable system either (ie: bleeding), but it blew away your HSDPA+ capability that lets face it are only ever theoretical the way MNO's cap/shape and butcher the backhaul network design. *sigh* I suggest you go back to gumboots where your company started Mr Anjoki, the party is over for your Nokia -- and hence the your board has been sweeping C-level executives like you, out the door over the past 10 days!

Maybe it's time to realize that US is not the center of the mobile/cellular world, far from actually. Nokia and other players of course need to consider how things move on outside US where Wimax has already been ruled in favour of LTE.

Wimax and LTE have the same type of radio access scheme (use of bandwidth, modulation, ARQ, coding, etc) and therefore should be expected to provide similar performance for many scenarios (except for VOIP where LTE is much more efficient).

LTE is no later than Wimax, it just has its own timescale. LTE comes from the 3GPP standardization group that is also responisble for the WCDMA standard that is also continuing to evolve such that it even competes with LTE and Wimax.

The 3GPP standard family (GSM, WCDMA, HSPA, LTE) is the preferred option though as they allow a graceful deployment for the operators not having to start from scratch for every new standard. I has a much stronger support on the network side.

A close friend had Wimax in Bogota for a while. It was the crapiest service possible and after two months he dropped the service. Until the service proves reliable enough it's penetration will be minimal.

Motorola presented a fully functioning prototype LTE network, with 2 sectors, and drove around in a van streaming live HDTV to and from it, while performing near flawless handovers.
the whole shebang - 2 sites and van were constructed by a small team in just under 2 weeks.

Obviously, there's still a LONG way to go, but saying it's just a powerpoint presentation is utter BULL!

Are these guys still in the market?