WiMAX World: Nokia unveils WiMAX plans

BOSTON--Nokia today shined some light through its until-now opaque WiMAX strategy, revealing a new base station based on its modular Flexi equipment line and a new initiative to pursue Mobile WiMAX handsets focused on a data centric applications.

The Flexi WiMAX base station may look familiar as it is built on the exact same platform as its UMTS base station, which uses a modular approach to support several radio technologies and frequency bands in the same box. Other vendors have taken the same modular approach to base stations, most notably Alcatel and Ericsson, but of the two Alcatel is the only one to pursue a WiMAX component. Nokia furthermore claims its modular and compact design makes it one of the smallest radio components on the market, easily carried by a single person.

Despite today’s launch, Nokia will likely be behind its competitors in bringing its WiMAX kit to market. It has targeted commercial availability for a 2.5 GHz base station at the end of 2007 and a 3.5 GHz system in the first quarter of 2008. Many vendors have already announced commercial availability for their systems and several are expected to have fully certified equipment available at the beginning of 2007. The timing may be a moot point, however, as few carriers have announced WiMAX plans, and those that have don’t plan to bring their commercial rollouts into full gear until 2008.

Nokia has been a very vocal supporter of Sprint’s WiMAX launch even though it did not win any portion of the contract and even though WiMAX threatens its core UMTS networks business. Sprint, however, is expected to pick another network vendor, if not more, for its nationwide WiMAX deployment. Nokia has a good chance of picking up that business and other North American deployments, said Mark Slater, vice president of networks sales and marketing for North America. Slater said Nokia brings a wealth of experience of deploying mobile networks in North America, something not all of its competitors can claim.

“[Sprint] is still accessible to us,” Slater said. “They certainly haven’t shut the door on other vendors, and the two they named [Samsung and Motorola] have to earn the right to go forward.”

On the handset side, Nokia will pursue a data-centric device strategy. Instead of creating devices built around a phone like most of its product line, Nokia plans to follow up on handhelds like its Internet tablet, which has no voice component.

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