Nortel Accelerates 4G Strategy To Bring Both WiMAX And LTE To Market Faster

Nortel is aligning its 4G wireless broadband strategy to address early market opportunities that are emerging for WiMAX and LTE. As part of this strategy, Nortel is focusing its main wireless R&D resources on 4G LTE and wireless applications, with WiMAX development re-aligning around the strategic agreement announced today with 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 increasing demand for mobile data with the advent of USB dongles, embedded laptops, and smartphones built on the iPhone model is driving traffic far faster than operators had anticipated," said Dr. Phil Marshall, vice president, Yankee Group. "Operators have realized that they need to get to 4G faster than originally anticipated. Major players such as China Mobile, NTT DoCoMo and Verizon have announced aggressive plans to roll out LTE, which we believe is the tip of the iceberg. The WiMAX market also continues to be very dynamic, with the underserved broadband markets and disruptive wireless operators in mature markets rapidly emerging as key market segments for that technology."

"Nortel is targeting its 4G portfolio to capitalize on the rapidly growing market opportunities associated with wireless broadband – and to help operators meet these needs quickly," said Richard Lowe, president, Carrier Networks, Nortel. "WiMAX will provide fast, cost-effective coverage and mobile broadband capabilities for early movers in the wireless broadband market. LTE will provide the high-speed, high-capacity mobile broadband network evolution sought by many established network operators, allowing them to offer not only faster connections but also an enriched user experience that includes real-time services such as mobile TV, web services, mobile advertising, and carrier-hosted services for businesses."

"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," continued Lowe.

The Nortel and Alvarion strategic agreement will form a complete, end-to-end WiMAX solution for each company's customers around the world, combining Alvarion's WiMAX access platform with Nortel's strength in all-IP network core technologies, backhaul, developing applications for carriers, such as VoIP and unified communications, and end-to-end lifecycle support through Nortel Global Services for WiMAX.

Nortel has appointed Scott Wickware as the general manager of WiMAX to drive Nortel's contributions to this strategic collaboration, including integration of these applications which will allow users to take advantage of the pervasive bandwidth offered by WiMAX while providing a simple communications experience.

"As the level of Hyperconnectivity increases around the world, more and more connected devices are driving increased traffic on wireless networks and users expect mobile communications to offer the same speed and capabilities as wireline connections," said Wickware. "The Nortel and Alvarion joint WiMAX solution will make business simple for WiMAX operators by providing a solution that recognizes and delivers on today's market needs for fast broadband coverage that is cost-effective and simple to deploy, while evolving to meet the ever-increasing demands for mobile connectivity."