Nortel Sets A Faster Pace (NT)(ERIC)(RBAK)(ALA)(VZ)(MOT)

After a glowing cover story in Barron’s recently, Nortel had something to live up to. The company, down so long that almost no one remembers when the company did well, Nortel signed at $2 billion deal today to provide equipment to Verizon for expanding the telecom’s internet broadband capacity.  :

Although Alcatel-Lucent is the No.1 provider of CDMA equipment Nortel is in second place.

The entire wireless and router industry is going through a huge consolidation. Ericsson has just bought Redback Networks which makes broadband routers. The price was $2.1 billion. The Alcatel merger with Lucent has just been completed.

Some analysts are skeptical that Nortel can follow up on the 17% run the stock has taken. But, at $24.50 the stock still trades toward the low end of its 52-week range. And, if the industry consolidates further, Motorola might come calling.

Douglas A McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.