It looks like WiMAX is here to stay. In just a few short weeks it's gone from a technology with a question mark hanging over its head to the mobile broadband choice for any carrier with spectrum to throw at it. First, Clearwire's tie-up with Motorola and Intel, and now Sprint's announcement to build a nationwide WiMAX network using its mountain of 2.5 GHz spectrum.

The clear winner in this wave of WiMAX boosting, however, is Motorola. Two weeks ago in this column, I contrasted Motorola's stellar handset performance to its rather dismal networks performance of late. But its WiMAX success might be the turnaround the vendor is looking for. While Motorola's mobile networks and 3G business may be suffering, it seems to have built a completely new networks business for itself overnight. Or to CEO Ed Zander's point, it's spent years building this business; it's merely seeing the fruits of those efforts now.

Regardless, Motorola is indisputably the king of the WiMAX world today. It and Samsung have landed the single largest Mobile WiMAX contract in the world, covering a proposed footprint with a population greater than that of most of the world's countries. Add that to the exclusive infrastructure deal with Clearwire, and Motorola has a good portion of the U.S. Mobile WiMAX business locked down and a huge potential to grow.

Contact me at kfitchard@prismb2b.com.