Daylife/Reuters Pictures
Nokia (L) chatting with AT&T (R)

Nokia has dismissed the prospects of the WiMax wireless mobile standard, claiming it is doomed to meet the same fate as Betamax, the video format that lost out to VHS in a war over technology standards in the 1970s and 1980s.

The world’s biggest maker of mobile phones is one of the founding members of the WiMax Forum, the industry body set up to promote the standard. The Finnish company is betting the 4G wireless standard LTE – Long Term Evolution – will dominate the mobile world by 2015 and WiMax will be the big loser.

WiMax has suffered a delayed roll-out in the US, but its main backer, the chipmaker Intel, has claimed the technology is taking hold in other parts of the world. “I don’t see that WiMax is taking hold anywhere in a big way,” said Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia’s head of sales and manufacturing, at a Nokia launch event in San Francisco yesterday…

His remarks were the most dismissive by Nokia of WiMax to date.

“It’s my prediction that by 2015, we will have an LTE network that will cover most of the important places in the world and that will give us the coverage and capacity we need,” said Mr Vanjoki. He said Verizon and AT&T were “going full blast” in rolling out LTE networks in the US.

I like the concept of RF-based communications competing with copper and fibre – just to kick everyone along in the direction of providing bandwidth capable of lots of IPTV for example. But, I ain’t holding my breath waiting.




  1. AdmFubar says:

    all i hear is $$$$ in somoene’s pocket, it sure aint mine…

    with just at&t and verizon in control there really wont be any competition.. so there will be high rates for these services..

    when googl rolls out their network in about a year or two from now, it might be different.

  2. gquaglia says:

    No surprise that soon to be dead Sprint is backing wimax while all the other players are embracing LTE.

  3. hhopper says:

    LTE would be nice… 150mbps down and 30mbps up.

  4. roland says:

    He got his analogy wrong… Betamax is superior to VHS, it failed because Sony was greedy and wanted big dough for licensing…

    He should probably just say Wimax is the wireless dialup vs. LTE’s wireless fibre….

  5. Special Ed says:

    Nokia hasn’t seen my technology yet. 400Mb up/down and it is secure. We will double that speed shortly. OFDM will do broadband over power lines as well.

  6. Dallas says:

    Follow the money. Nokia (and Ericsson) both have intellectual property interests in LTE.

    In addition, they both are top infrastructure equipment suppliers to LTE’s predecessor (GSM and 3G/Edge).

    Why would they support a new technology that levels the playing field? Either way, WiMax and LTE are built on the same OFDM foundation so it will be nothing more than what you have today with 802.11 A/B/G/N

  7. bob says:

    #4 you’re smoking the good stuff

  8. echeola says:

    They have wimax here in madison wi. I can get 6 meg a sec for $45 a mo. Hardly competitive with the cable co, but still decent. So it’s here right now.

  9. ggore says:

    They are “going full blast” in rolling out LTE, huh? Interesting. Is there one LTE tower running in the US yet?…NO Have they covered the ENTIRE US with 3G yet?….NO Have they covered the ENTIRE US with EDGE yet?….NO Have they covered the ENTIRE US with plain digital yet?….NO.

    This is a crock. Wi-Max has always been touted as the way broadband was finally going to be able to reach EVERY populated corner of the country at last. Fewer towers, better reach, etc. Now I read that Wi-Max will only be available in a few major cities this year, rolled out in a few more next year, and on and on. No mention of smaller towns or rural areas.

    These companies have NEVER completed a generation of technology to the extent that everyone in the country can use it, before they move on to the “next big thing”, leaving half the country in a huge coverage hole.

  10. atmusky says:

    “I like the concept of RF-based communications competing with copper and fibre – just to kick everyone along in the direction of providing bandwidth capable of lots of IPTV for example. But, I ain’t holding my breath waiting.”

    Internet TV will soon be dead, the cable companies are starting to charge by the GB – in my area Time Warner prices will be $30/ mo for 5 GB & $50/mo for 20 GBs if you go over it will cost you $1/GB. Change goes into effect this summer.

  11. Shenzhov says:

    Is it just me or does that picture of these two remind you of a couple of sleazy used car salesman.

  12. sargasso says:

    #12. you bet.

  13. Sarah says:

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  14. bobbo says:

    Editor==

    This is about the third time I have noticed Sarah posting the same message. You might send the paramedics to her website and see if she is off her meds.


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