Despite all the hoopla around WiMAX and it leading to formation of new carriers, it is becoming increasingly clear that it is the incumebents who will end up becoming major players in the fixed wireless business. Last week we heard about AT&T mucking around with pre-WiMAX technology in New Jersey. Sprint and Nextel combination has enough spectrum to string together a decent back-haul fixed wireless network. And now Unstrung reports that France Telecom is tooling around with WiMAX. France Telecom has deployed ‘pre-WiMax’ networks based on the fixed wireless 802.16d standard in the towns of Amilly, Lehon, and La Salvetat, using kit from Redline Communications, Aperto Networks, and Alvarion, the report says. Yann Rochefort, project manager of WiMax technology at France Telecom. told Unstrung, “We used WiMax as a backhaul to deliver high-speed access to WiFi access points” The deployment has 32 customers consisting of residential and local government office users.