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Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson win Verizon LTE deal

Posted on February 18, 2009

Verizon LTE deal – In a decision that has been eagerly awaited by the global cellular industry, US mobile operator Verizon Wireless (a JV between Verizon and Vodafone) has announced plans to upgrade its network to 3G Long Term Evolution and has named Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent as its initial vendors’.
At this morning’s highly anticipated keynote address at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Verizon Communications’ executive vice president and CTO Dick Lynch named the key vendors for the company’s LTE network deployment.  Ericsson and Alcatel Lucent scored deals to be the primary infrastructure vendors for the radio access network. In addition,  Alcatel Lucent and Nokia Siemens will be the key suppliers for the IMS network that will enable rich multimedia applications.  Finally, the enhanced packet core will be provided by Alcatel Lucent, Ericsson and Starent Networks.

Verizon, which secured 700 MHz spectrum last year in the spectrum auction, has been field testing LTE with Vodafone in Minneapolis, Columbus, Ohio, and Northern New Jersey, as well as in Budapest, Düsseldorf, and Madrid, with a variety of network infrastructure providers.  The field trials have demonstrated download rates of 50 to 60 Mbps peak speeds, though actual average download results will not be determined until commercial launch.

Verizon plans to start deploying LTE at year-end and will launch it with a significant footprint in 2010. In an interview with FierceWireless, Lynch said, “I can demonstrate a commercial system this year.  I can show you a footprint of respectable magnitude in 2010.”   (Source: fiercewireless.com)

Categories: Business

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