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Nortel - what's your WiMax story?
Still in the WiMax business, but Alvarion makes the kit.
By Peter Judge, Techworld | Techworld
Published: 15:00 GMT, 14 June 08
Even though Nortel has decided to stop making WiMax equipment, the company is still committed to WiMax. How is that possible?
We spoke to Scott Wickware, newly-appointed global head of WiMax at Nortel, and he says its just about timing, and the need to focus research work on jobs that haven't already been done elsewhere.
Scott, is Nortel still involved in promoting WiMax, for instance in the Mobile Wimax Acceleration Group's demonstration network in Maidstone?
We are still working with MWAG, and we are continuing with the trial in Maidstone. We are evaluating where we're putting our resources.
What we'll do is any existing customers and trials with our previous product, will transition to the new product, jointly developed with Alvarion - unless they are trials which are completed.
From this stage forward, every base station we sell will be the new product.
What do you mean by a "jointly developed product"?
I want to make one point really clear here. We're working with Alvarion, and the base station they are shipping is an Alvarion product. However, Nortel is investing in the development of that product. In other words, we are paying them R and D so they incorporate features and functionality that we define to a certain degree.
Will the results of that investment be available to other Alvarion customers, or are they making a particular Nortel version of their kit?
No, it will be available to both, because we are contributing both money and direction. We have a lot of IPR and a lot of know-how. One of the main reasons we have done the alliance is because we had some capabilities - notably MIMO - that are applicable in more of a capacity-challenged environment.
With many of the new build-outs of WiMax, they're in underserved broadband areas, and the focus there is really on coverage. Alvarion has a 2x4 branch that is ideally suited to that application. In the short term we will leverage that, but in the long term we will be helping them incorporate capabilities such as MIMO into their portfolio.
The point being that it's not just an OEM, we are working very closely with them on the definition and development of their products. It will then form the basis of products we both sell independently into the market.
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SAFA | Published: 18:19 GMT, 18 June 2008
Let's go back to WiMAX history. This is the same story like 802.16d some times befor. Two companies Siemens and Alcatel use Alvarion equipment in "complit" solution. And now again "good fellow" Alvarion save his competitors-friends. Ok, let all WiMAX companies united!