Aperto Networks, a startup that makes network gear for the long-awaited wireless technology WiMAX, said Monday it received an additional $26 million in funding to bring in global customers and work on the next-generation technology.

The Milpitas, California-based company raised its latest “Series E” funding from GunnAllen Venture Partners, JK&B Capital, Canaan Partners, Alliance Ventures, Innovacom, JAFCO, and Labrador Ventures.

The late-stage financing round brings the company’s total to $120 million, making it one of the most well-funded of the startups in the nascent WiMAX market.

“This latest funding is an important milestone for Aperto and its global carrier customer base,” said Yankee analyst Philip Marshall, in a statement.

WiMAX, which stands for Wireless Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a wide area wireless technology that has seen a lot of hype and, in comparison, little delivery.

But the technology is already finding acceptance in developing countries in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa that have no fixed-line broadband networks or only spotty ones.

There are two flavors of WiMAX, fixed and mobile. Aperto currently sells its fixed WiMAX hardware to carriers in countries like Pakistan, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, and Russia.

The fixed standard is a technology that has a proven marketplace to replace fixed broadband networks. The U.S. market saw its first fixed WiMAX products for sale in January of this year (see WiMAX (Finally) Arrives).

Mobile WiMAX

But industry watchers say the real disruptive technology could be mobile WiMAX, though the market is still unproven.

Mobile WiMAX is not expected to be certified and on the market in the United States until next year, at the earliest.

Mobile WiMAX will be used in mobile devices like laptops, and has found significant backing from Intel, which plans to roll out WiMAX chips for laptops next year.

Last week, Intel said it will spend $25 million to create a WiMAX joint venture with a British Internet service provider to promote the technology (see Intel Sells WiMAX Service).

Intel will begin selling Intel-branded WiMAX PC cards later this year. Its engineers also are working on putting Wi-Fi and WiMAX on the same chip.

Aperto’s CEO Reza Ahy said in a statement the company is developing its mobile WiMAX products and will use this funding to bring the technology to market.

Analysts like Rajeev Chand, with Rutberg & Co., are more doubtful of mobile WiMAX. Mr. Chand said that while the market for fixed WiMAX is growing fast, the market for mobile WiMAX remains “highly speculative” (see WiMAX Struggles for Respect).

WiMAX companies are getting their fair share of funding, though.

The biggest deal of the first quarter of this year was the $350-million investment in Clearwire, a WiMAX company founded in October 2003 by Craig McCaw, the cellular phone pioneer who sold McCaw Cellular Communications to AT&T in 1994 for more than $11 billion.

Clearwire has already netted some $620 million in debt and another $100-million investment from BellCanada (see Startup Casts $1B into WiMax).