Once an enthousiast founder, Nokia has decided to quit the WiMAX Forum which had been set up to support 802.16, a new standard to enable high-speed wireless Net connections over a 30-mile range.

The Register theory is that Nokia might now see WiMAX equipment as a threat to its strategy of designing low cost cellular base stations for developing countries (especially India, China, Russia and South America). Having made huge progresses in that sense, Nokia might no longer need fixed WiMAX as a back-up.

Besides, Alcatel and Siemens have jumped in the bandwagon and aim to deliver WiMAX base stations at an early stage, zeroing any hopes Nokia had of being the pioneer on the market.

So Nokia’s move might indicate that the company now wants to focus in cut-price cellular networks and terminals for developing markets.