Blackberry Mobility Featured Article

In yet another sign that LTE will ultimately prevail over WiMAX (News - Alert) as the new standard in wireless communications, Cisco is reportedly exiting the WiMAX access network market, which it entered when it acquired Navini (News - Alert) Networks in 2007.

'After careful review, our mobility strategy is to focus on providing a radio-agnostic IP end-to-end mobile multimedia services network,' Cisco spokeswoman Jennifer Buchhalter (News - Alert) was quoted as saying in a Thursday report on FierceBroadbandWireless. 'Cisco will continue to focus on the packet core and to also focus on investment in radio technologies such as femtocells and WiFi (News - Alert). As part of this decision, we have decided to discontinue designing and building new WiMAX base stations. We believe the best way for Cisco to serve our customers is by delivering value at the edge and the core of our customers' networks.'

At the time Cisco bought Navini Networks, the idea was that it could become a major supplier of WiMAX equipment to Clearwire (News - Alert) and other wireless operators. But during the past two years, wireless operators have shown their preference for LTE technology when it comes to rolling out the next generation of mobile services. In response to this, Cisco acquired Starent Networks, a provider of LTE technology for mobile carriers, last fall for about $2.9 billion.

No word yet as to whether Cisco will put Navini Networks up for sale.