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So Why Did Sprint Overlook Nortel?
By Mark Evans | January 9, 2007
In the wake of Sprint selecting Nokia rather than Nortel as the third supplier for its $2.5-billion to $3-billion WiMax contract, it’s interesting read a research report issued last week by TD Securities analyst Chris Umiastowski (before Sprint officially unveiled Nokia as its choice). Umiastowski said Nokia’s selection would be a “disappointment” for Nortel because Nortel has been promoting WiMax as a strategic priority and enjoyed a long relationship with Sprint as one of the carrier’s key CDMA suppliers.
“We would argue there are few WiMax customers where Nortel would be better positioned than with Sprint,” Umiastowski said. “If Sprint were to select Nokia as an infrastructure supplier, it does not necessarily man that Nortel would not be sued. However, it would probably mean that any involvement by Nortel in the project would be a lot less relevant than it could be. In our view, it would be a huge disappointment for Nortel if they do not win at some part of Sprint’s WiMax build”.
Umiastowski suggests Nortel may have been left out of the mix because unlike Samsung, Motorola and Nokia, Nortel does not make mobile handsets. “We are starting to wonder if we could be seeing a shift in how WiMax infrastructure equipment is selected, where the vendor must also supply the carrier with WiMax handsets,” he said.
“If that were the case, it could pose a big challenge for the likes of Nortel and Alcatel-Lucent and could possibly relegate them to Tier 2 status suppliers”. (Editor’s note: Couldn’t Nortel and Alcatel-Lucent simply sub-contract the WiMax handsets as part of a contract proposal? Do they really have to make WiMax handsets?)
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Topics: Contract Wins, Wireless |
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