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Nortel's WiMAX rebound
IBM, WiChorus, Quanta Computer and Accton Wireless Broadband sign up with the telecom integrator to deliver end-to-end WiMAX solutions.
Some might say they're back, while others will tell you they never left.
This week Nortel announced expansion of its WiMAX partner ecosystem at WiMAX
World in Chicago. IBM, WiChorus, Quanta Computer and Accton Wireless
Broadband join Alvarion and Airspan Networks to support Nortel's end-to-end
solution integration vision.
In June, the company announced a strategic partnership with Alvarion to offer
the radio vendor's mobile WiMAX portfolio to its prospective customers rather
than pursue its own development. Early media reports signaled the
company's move as bowing out of the WiMAX market to focus on LTE research and
development. However, two weeks ago Nortel announced it would be exiting
the LTE infrastructure business and considering partnership strategies for the
yet-to-be completed 3GPP specification. A similar supply arrangement was
already in place with Airspan Networks for 802.16-2004 radios.
"For Nortel, our sweet spot is the integration of a complete solution," said
Scott Wickware, WiMAX general manager at Nortel. "Backhaul, applications
like VoIP, professional services, devices and enterprise offerings are all part
of a WiMAX build and where Nortel excels."
Nortel is leveraging its existing alliance with IBM to deliver unified
communications capabilities for Lotus Notes users over mobile WiMAX technology.
This provides access to a range of services including IP telephony, instant
messaging, web conferencing as well as video chat capabilities, regardless of
location and device. New to Nortel's stable is the WiChorus Home Agent,
which provides operators with subscriber and content management. On the
WiMAX device front, Nortel is working with Quanta Computer and Accton Wireless
Broadband in Taiwan to deliver Nortel-branded 802.16e-2005 devices including
PCMCIA cards, USB adapters, indoor gateways, window mount antennas and outdoor
gateways working in the 2.3, 2.5 and 3.5 GHz frequency bands.
Nortel has contracts for commercial WiMAX deployment with Comstar in Russia,
Wind Telecom in the Dominican Republic, Quad-Cities Online and ITT Corporation
in the United States, Chunghwa Telecom and Far EasTone in Taiwan, and the
Alberta Special Areas Board in Canada.
By Jeff Orr, ORR Technology, LLC
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