Nortel wins down-under WiMAX deal

Nortel has scored its first major WiMAX win, announcing this week that Australian cable provider Austar United Broadband will roll out its base station kit in regions of Australia with low broadband penetration.

Outside of major markets like Sydney and Melbourne, typical broadband speeds can vary drastically, said Regina Moldovan, senior manager of WiMAX marketing for Nortel. In many places the maximum broadband speeds available top out at 256 kb/s, making a high-capacity WiMAX build particularly attractive, she said.

Nortel and Austar said they were still negotiating the terms of their contract and the scope of the deal—Nortel is the only named vendor—but Moldovan said Austar’s ultimate plans for the network are not small. The operator has 2.3 MHz and 3.5 MHz licenses covering much of Australia’s population, and if it chooses, it can expand beyond regional markets into the larger metro areas, offering full mobility. “They have pretty substantial plans for covering Australia,” Moldovan said.

Austar is, in part, owned by international cable operator Liberty Global. It initially launched trials in two Australian markets, Wagga Wagga and Tamworth, using Nortel equipment, but decided recently to pursue a full commercial launch.

This week, Nortel competitor Motorola also announced a new WiMAX trial with Vietnam Datacommunications to deploy its gear in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.