The Canadian equipment manufacturer Nortel is passing on its WiMax operations to Alvarion in order to focus on LTE development, as reported on telecoms.com. Nortel claims the deal allows for both WiMax and LTE, which is projected to get to market faster than anticipated, to be developed on a timely schedule.

But there are other dynamics at play. The most immediate stimulus for the switch may be due to the Clearwire-Sprint deal still fresh in everyone’s minds; such a coalition in support of WiMax technologies has got AT&T and Verizon scrambling to polish the rival technology they’re backing, LTE. Once shipped, LTE hardware will be able to deliver floods of streaming media to mobile users, in as-of-yet unheard of quantities. Is it any surprise that Nortel is eying this development anxiously? In Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski’s own words, it’ll put “lots of pressure on the bandwidth of the networks” (TheStar.com). Thus they have prioritized, allowing Alvarion to handle WiMax while they lavish the LTE front with the attention it needs.

Smart move ? It seems so. Nortel’s stock consequently jumped 13% following the announcement. But don’t interpret that as a clear indication of market confidence in LTE–the battle lines are still being drawn on the 4G frontier.

Nortel Government Solutions is working with the US Department of Defense to explore possibilities for military use of WiMAX. An ideal situation for the Department of Defense would be a powerful wireless network that could instantly connect “anytime, anywhere” whether in the air, on the ground, or at sea. One vision of the use of WiMAX is quoted as follows from WiMAX Day:

In the arena of military tactics, WiMAX can be used to establish “links between temporary camps and command centres…. quick connections between camps and vehicles,” and with mobile WiMAX 802.16e “will allow constant communication with vehicles moving up to 60 miles per hour on the battlefield.” This is similar to a system that was developed for the Command Operations Center (COC) of the US Marine Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF) where WiMAX was integrated into mobile command units, combined with tactical radio and satellite systems.

This exploration is not just being undertaken by the United States. The French military has already arranged for the use of WiMAX via French WiMAX operator TDF. The Department of Defense is still waiting for “some standards to mature,” according to WiMAX Day. Whether or not WiMAX is adopted as part of a new technological strategy depends on how the technology evolves and the overall future of the standard.