Nortel Picks LTE over Wi-Max

By Mark Evans | Published: June 11, 2008

Not sure what to make of Nortel’s decision to pick LTE over Wi-Max but pragmatism seems to have played a key role.

Gerry Collins, Nortel’s director of wireless for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said LTE has better prospects while Wi-Max has done as well as expected.
“We looked at our portfolio and felt we hadn’t addressed either segment very well,” he told PC World, adding that Nortel will focus its R&D dollars and focus on LTE rather than trying to split it between LTE and Wi-Max.

For an overview on Nortel’s LTE portfolio, click here, including several podcasts on 4G and LTE.

More: CNNMoney‘s Scott Moritz has a story on Nortel’s move, calling it “another blow’ to Wi-Max.

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  • http://ext.com ex-nt

    I guess Peter MacKinnon was not successful with WIMAX. Does anyone know what is happening to him?

  • protosphere

    What 4G when they sold their 3G (UMTS) to merged ALA+LU, that which sells today, and what 3G customers will they have to sell to migrating from 3G to 4G much later, if this buzzword about into the future 4G ever takes off. let alone 4G. Traditional PR hype. I still remember Neptune.

    also:
    “Nortel, holding a meeting with investors…”

    _____________________________________________________

    http://www.reportonbusiness.com/servlet/story/R…

    Nortel, Israeli company combine network businesses

    The Canadian Press – June 11, 2008 at 7:30 AM EDT

    TORONTO — Nortel Networks Corp. and Tel Aviv-based technology provider Alvarion Ltd. have struck a “strategic WiMAX agreement” to combine the Israeli company's radio access network solutions with the Canadian telecom equipment maker's network gear and services.

    The financial terms of the arrangement were not disclosed Wednesday.

    The aim is to “create an end-to-end WiMAX solution” enabling established and new service providers to efficiently deliver high-speed wireless broadband for applications including VoIP, streaming music and high-definition video.

    “The collaboration between Nortel and Alvarion will allow both companies to deliver on these needs quickly and efficiently with a world-class WiMAX solution that is based on the best technology from each,” stated Richard Lowe, head of Nortel's carrier networks division.

    “The solution will also include Nortel services, ranging from network consulting, design and deployment to full network management.”

    The agreement covers resale by Nortel of Alvarion WiMAX access products, whose base-station development “will be accelerated by Nortel's contribution of resources, expertise, and funding,” the companies said.

    Nortel said it is focusing its main wireless research and development on so-called fourth-generation long term evolution applications, leaving WiMAX development to Alvarion.

    “This enables Nortel to achieve faster time to market with WiMAX at a lower cost, while accelerating LTE development to meet a demand that is emerging faster than the industry originally predicted,” the Toronto-headquartered company said.

    “Both WiMAX and LTE represent game-changing opportunities for Nortel because they require advances in network speed and capacity that Nortel knows how to deliver,” Mr. Lowe stated.

    Nortel, holding a meeting with investors Wednesday to discuss the company's ongoing “transformation,” reconfirmed its outlook for this year, predicting percentage revenue growth “in the low single digits” with a gross profit margin of about 43 per cent of revenue.

    _____________________________________________

    also:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvarion

    Founded 1992, Alvarion employs 444 people worldwide and reported net revenue of US$236.6 million for their most recent fiscal year, which ended on December 31, 2007.

  • Moi

    Peter McKinnon is going back to managing the NT-LG venture, while Scott Wickware picks up the pieces of Wimax.

  • many

    The Alvarion deal will be a test of the “new and improved nortel”. In the past they have had problems with ordering systems and compensating sales staff to sell any equipment that is part of a “strategic” agreement.

    If this agreement solves the huge gapping hole on their wireless product portfolio then it could be a very good thing. Time will tell.

  • http://ext.com ex-nt

    What Nortel is saying is: “we cancelled our internally designed WIMAX base station and are getting a product from Alvarion that we can re-sell”. I think they are also saying “we will develop an internal LTE product to sell to our CDMA customers like Verizon as an upgrade”. Protosphere is right that they have no ability to sell to UMTS customers who will buy their LTE upgrades from their existing vendors. This begs the question: if WIMAX was one of the big growth opportunities talked about by Nortel last year, what happens now? What is the NEW magic growth area?

  • http://www.kk.com ex-nt

    So I guess Peter McKinnon is not accountable for the failure of his WIMAX strategy and business – nothing has changed at Nortel.

  • George Handly

    I think Nortel has made the right choice with their 4G solution. We ended up in trouble going to 3G trying to be everything to everyone. So much time and money spent on 1XEV-DV because Sprint and Verizon couldn't figure out which direction they wanted to go in. Now we are stuck reselling products from Airvana.

    I think the end of Wimax was a good idea, since there seems to be little traction for the technology which has been in 'hype mode' for years with very small results.

    At least with LTE it appears that all of the major players are moving in the same direction. People who don't know the depth and breadth of Nortel's product line or our customers have no idea how many of our customers wireless customers aren't necessarily data/voip customers or how many of our trunking/voip customers aren't our own wireless customers.

    If we can come up with a solid product the customers will come, have no worries.

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