Telecommunications Magazine's Ken Wieland reports that Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski said last week at a press conference that his company will take a leadership role in 4G wireless tech, largely by virtue of its expertise in OFDM and MIMO.

"Mobile video is the next great application disrupter, and the economics of 4G to deliver that are far more compelling than legacy networks," Zafirovski said.

Still, Zafirovski doesn't see 4G as a significant source of revenue for another five years or so. "In the meantime, increases in traffic over 3G and fixed broadband networks, courtesy of video-based applications, will play into Nortel's hands -- argued Zafirovski -- as operators will need to look at investing more in their backhaul networks," Wieland writes.