If you think WiMAX is being crushed by LTE, think again, says ABI Research.

Nortel left the mobile WiMAX market, and Alcatel-Lucent has “backed off” from WiMAX, supposedly dealing a blow to Clearwire, which has not chosen either company as an infrastructure vendor, ABI points out.

But Nortel is still in the fixed WiMAX market, and Alcatel-Lucent is actually involved with mobile WiMAX, says ABI Research principal analyst Philip Solis. Alcatel-Lucent has had its 3.5 GHz products certified by the WiMAX Forum; its ng Connect program includes mobile WiMAX; and it is working with Intel on an interoperability program for mobile WiMAX devices, he states. “In addition, Alcatel-Lucent ranks first in 2008 market share for mobile WiMAX base station deployments, followed by Alvarion, Motorola and Samsung.”

WiMAX has many growth opportunities beyond traditional mobile operator networks, including data-centric deployments in both developed and developing regions, ABI says. “To ignore a growth market in a down economy would be a mistake,” adds Solis. Growth will be more modest for WiMAX base stations by themselves for 2009, but 2010 will see healthy expansion.

U.S. WiMAX service provider Clearwire reports its fourth-quarter results later today.