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Nortel ditches WiMax in 4G race
LTE gaining ground…

By Marguerite Reardon

Published: Monday 16 June 2008

Telecom equipment maker Nortel Networks is ditching its WiMax business to focus on a more popular 4G wireless technology.

The company said earlier this week that it's focusing its money and development efforts on long-term evolution or LTE. Even though LTE hasn't yet been standardised, it has more support from major carriers around the world than WiMax.

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The two largest US operators, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, have already announced they plan to use LTE to build their 4G wireless networks. Vodafone, the largest worldwide wireless operator, also plans to use LTE for its next-generation network. Sprint Nextel is the only major US operator using WiMax. The company earlier this year joined forces with Clearwire and several other companies including Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Intel in a $12bn joint venture to build a nationwide WiMax network.

Sprint, which has already been testing its WiMax network in some places, did not choose Nortel as one of its major vendors to build the new network. This was a major blow for the telco equipment maker, which instead has been forced to focus on carriers in emerging markets. Relative to LTE, this WiMax opportunity is much smaller, which is likely to have contributed to the company's decision to ditch it.