Nortel dumps Wimax for LTE

NORTEL NETWORKS, the Canadian telecom equipment maker, said yesterday that it would rather spend its time and money developing LTE than Wimax.

At an investors meeting, the telecom company reckoned that it was putting its money on the better option of the two 4G wireless technologies, because even though LTE (long-term evolution) has yet to be standardised, it already has more backing from major mobile carriers than Intel’s Wimax.

Of the three major US mobile operators, only Sprint Nextel has thrown its lot in with Wimax, whilst AT&T and Verizon Wireless have opted for LTE instead.

Sprint Nextel hurt Nortel’s feelings somewhat back in early May when the company decided to form a Wimax gang which left them standing out in the cold. The gang, which included Comcast, Google, Bright House Networks, Venture Capital firm Trilogy Equity Partners and, of course, Intel, managed to pool an enormous $14.55 billion into a communications company that would purportedly build a nationwide Wimax network across the US.

But now Nortel is forming its own gang, by teaming up with Tel Aviv-based firm Alvarion to develop LTE wireless technology even further. The firm says it will carry out live trials of its technology, which should only be ready for release in 2010.

Currently, Nortel holds almost a third of the market for wireless equipment built on the older wireless technology, CDMA (code division multiple access). µ

L’Inq
CNET

See Also
Intel spearheads Open Patent Alliance for Wimax
Sprint and Clearwire pool WiMax resources