Alvarion signs a deal with Altitude -- WiMAX alive and well outside the U.S.

As I reported last week, Alvarion (NASDAQ: ALVR) was rumored to have landed a contract with a French mobile carrier for WiMAX deployment. Well, the rumors were true as a deal was announced today. Alvarion signed a deal with French mobile player, Altitude, to supply the nation-wide carrier with Alvarion's Mobile WiMAX™ 4Motion™ solution using the 3.5 GHz frequency band. Research group Broadpoint Capital said in a research note that it estimated the size of the deal to be worth about $4-5 million over two years. Not too shabby.

Alvarion continues to prove that WiMAX is not dead. While Sprint-Nextel (NYSE: S) and Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR) decided to call-off a large U.S. deployment, Alvarion continues to win and secure new client relationships around the world, including Europe and emerging markets. BloggingStocks' Aaron Katsman continues to believe that Sprint's announcement was not a death knell for WiMAX, rather a company-specific problem facing Sprint.

It's also interesting to see that Alvarion beat out home-grown favorite, Alcatel Lucent (NYSE: ALU), to win this contract. This contract, while not large in size, has the potential to grow with time, while carriers like Altitude continue to test WiMAX deployments. Alvarion has over 220 ongoing WiMAX deployments around the world, including some 40 mobile WiMAX tests.

Basic Internet connectivity is still a major focus of countries outside the U.S., and WiMAX looks to be the solution of choice for many foreign telecommunication carriers in terms of cost and speed and ease of deployment. Alvarion is a compelling play for investors betting on the viability of global WiMAX deployment.

Zack Miller is the managing editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund. Disclaimer: Author's fund has a position in ALVR as of 12/11/2007.