Nokia affirms LTE commitment, dismisses WiMAX

Nokia affirmed its commitment to Long Term evolution (LTE) technology and said it would have devices for LTE networks in 2010, according to a company executive.

James Harper, Nokia's senior manager of technology marketing, did not say specifically what kind of devices Nokia would produce, but did indicate that they would be highly data-intensive devices. Harper was speaking at a Portable Computer and Communications Association meeting held in Grapevine, Texas.

Harper declined to say what carriers would offer the devices. So far, U.S. carriers Verizon Wireless, and recently MetroPCS, have said they plan on having commercial deployments of LTE by 2010.

Harper also dismissed WiMAX as a 4G standard, calling it a "niche play," and saying that the technology's lack of backwards compatibility and a clear roadmap were major drawbacks. Nokia ended production of its N810 Internet Tablet WiMAX Edition in January, but was one of the early device partners for Sprint Nextel's Xohm WiMAX efforts.     

For more:
- see this GigaOM post [1]

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