August 5, 2008: Nortel still reminding industry it sells WiMAX
Two months ago Scott Wickware, GM of Nortel's WiMAX unit went on the defensive to rebut press reports that the company's WiMAX deal with Alvarion and increased R&D spend on LTE meant that the company was pulling away from its WiMAX business. Wickware has continued to fight the pervasive speculation that Nortel is out of WiMAX ever since. Wickware told ComputerWorld last week that after reading so many reports that his unit was on its way out, he never wants to hear the words "scuttle" or "jettison" again.
Just this past week Wickware consoled a group of Taiwanese CPE makers that Nortel's deal with Alvarion would not exclude them from doing business with his unit--the unease over that deal continues to plague Wickware, but the flurry of reports that Nortel was out and now a subsequent flurry that the company is in certainly creates interest in the company's wares.
Nortel isn't the only company defending its WiMAX plans, Clearwire and Sprint are still waiting to hear how AT&T's petition to the FCC to restrict some of the merged entity's spectrum licenses turns out. Meanwhile, AT&T has announced that WiMAX seems to be the best technology for its networks in rural communities. The carrier deployed WiMAX in Alaska about one year ago. Read this week's feature column by Rethink Research's Caroline Gabriel for all the details.
