Nokia's head of sales and manufacturing Anssi Vanjok, recently said, "I don't think the future is very promising [for WiMax]." Nokia ended production of its WiMax-equipped N810 Internet Tablet several months ago. Is he right, does WiMax have a real future?Vanjok was not kind. He also said, "This is a classic example of industry standards clashing, and somebody comes out as the winner and somebody has to lose. Betamax was there for a long time, but VHS dominated the market. I see exactly the same thing happening here."

In this case, WiMax is Betamax and LTE is VHS.

He continued, "It's my prediction that by 2015, we will have an LTE network that will cover most of the important places in the world and that will give us the coverage and capacity we need."

The "important places" comment could have been a not-so-subtle stab at Clearwire, which offers WiMax in rural areas not served by other broadband options.

Given the conversations I've had this week with companies such as Verizon Wireless, I agree that LTE will be deployed swiftly once the technology is ready.

With LTE's future all but set, Wimax is certainly left on shaky ground. The Clear network has yet to launch in more than two U.S. cities, though 10 more are planned for this year.

Having two competing 4G networking technologies is a recipe for disaster. I think it's clear how competition worked here in the U.S. Verizon Wireless and Sprint both ventured down the CMDA path, and didn't follow AT&T and T-Mobile down the GSM path. As of today, GSM networks are used by 87% of the world's population. Verizon has picked LTE as its next-generation networking technology, in part, because it sees that having one system that works well with those of its competitors around the world can be beneficial (read: roaming!).

In any event, Nokia wasn't so nice about WiMax's future. I can't say I blame Vanjok.