News from Europe today revealed that Finnish wireless telecom equipment vendor Nokia (NYSE:NOK) has decided to pull out of the WiMAX Forum.  The WiMAX Forum is an industry alliance geared towards certifying interoperability and promoting development of WiMAX products and technologies. 

Nokia chose not to renew its membership dues with the organization, and although that was downplayed by some other WiMAX Forum participants, it was nevertheless a bit surprising, since Nokia was one of the original founding members.

Despite the active involvement by some powerhouses like Intel (NYSE: INTC), which have pledged to develop WiMAX silicon, a lot of work remains to be solved by the IEEE 802.16 committee that has been working on the WiMAX standard.  One issue being worked on is the ability to roam freely between cells and to maintain online access while in motion (a sub-committee, 802.16e is focused on solving the problem).