There will be a new predator prowling the halls of NXTcomm this year: the WiMAX vendor. You already thought you were getting it on all sides from optical, copper, Wi-Fi and satellite equipment makers. Well, now it's WiMAX's turn.

Last year at Globalcomm, WiMAX was a questionable, if not somewhat intriguing, technology--one positioned at competitive ISPs, smaller carriers and the like. But since that June, Sprint has signed on to WiMAX, and big carriers worldwide such as British Telecom have started expressing renewed interest. All of sudden, WiMAX is squarely in play among Tier I providers, and you can bet your friendly neighborhood vendor has a value proposition to pitch you.

As Nokia Siemens Networks radio networks general manager Ari Lehtoranta points out in today's Q&A, the full impact of WiMAX is still up in the air. It's no longer a question of whether the technology will have an impact--merely a question of how big. Lehtoranta said Nokia got into the WiMAX game with the idea of selling gear to smaller providers, fixed-line carriers and ISPs, but with Sprint's decision, the market opened to CDMA. And with CDMA on the line, the whole cellular market may just open up. The world's largest GSM operator, Vodafone is reportedly considering a WiMAX deployment.

What was a small-to-middling potential market a year ago has now blown up to encompass the entire breadth of the carrier market. Frequencies like the 2.3 GHz bands are still idle, and the 700 MHz spectrum is ripe for picking. So whether you're a cable operator considering participating in the next auction, a small rural provider, or an AT&T, you can bet the new WiMAX vendors out there have your number. Don't say you weren't warned…

Contact me at kfitchard@telephonyonline.com.