Nortel, Toshiba in WiMAX deal

Nortel and Toshiba this week said they will jointly develop mobile WiMAX base stations for Japanese and global markets.

The base stations will be based on Nortel's broadband wireless technology and Toshiba's amplifier and miniaturization technology. The base stations' radio module will be developed by Toshiba, while Nortel will develop the digital module for the base stations.

In Japan, Nortel and Toshiba jointly participated in the government's next-generation wireless trial using WiMAX solutions, and completed the trial service provision in the Tohoku region of northern Japan from December 2006 to March 2007.

Nortel continues to forge ahead with WiMAX even though some are skeptical of the company’s prospects in that market.