NextGen Voice

Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson Help AT&T Deploy LTE

By Anuradha Shukla, TMCnet Contributor

Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson have been chosen by AT&T as equipment suppliers for the planned deployment of its higher-speed LTE (News - Alert) mobile broadband network.

 

According to officials with AT&T, the company is all set for its planned field trials of LTE technology later this year, and has scheduled its commercial deployment in 2011.

 

This timing is just right according to officials who note industry expectations for development of LTE technology and the general availability of equipment and compatible LTE mobile devices.

 

The telecommunication giant also intends to make the nation's fastest 3G network even faster in advance of LTE networks and devices scaling so that it can continue delivering advanced mobile broadband experience to its users.

 

The decision to select Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson was made after AT&T (News - Alert) tested equipment from multiple suppliers in the field and in a lab environment.

 

Both companies will provide equipment for the AT&T 3G network and in the future will enable AT&T to incorporate high-performance LTE equipment as well as leverage the compatibility between the suppliers' existing 3G equipment and forthcoming LTE upgrades.

 

All the 3G equipment delivered to AT&T by the suppliers will be easily convertible to LTE, and as a result, help AT&T to upgrade existing equipment and software instead of installing completely new equipment in many cases as it deploys the next-generation technology.

 

John Stankey, president and CEO of AT&T Operations said that this selection is an important step forward in its ongoing mobile broadband strategy, which is focused on delivering a good combination of speed, performance and available devices for customers at every level of technology deployment.

 

Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert) CEO Ben Verwaayen also  said that they see this agreement as a starting point for further collaboration with AT&T to deliver an end-to-end IP solution for mobile broadband.

 

'Our ability to work together to meet the demands of a rapidly changing market has been a crucial element in gaining AT&T's continued confidence,' said Hans Vestberg, president and CEO of Ericsson (News - Alert). 'We will work just as hard to secure a smooth rollout of LTE and support AT&T in introducing new consumer and business services moving forward.'

Anuradha Shukla is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Anuradha’s article, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Stefania Viscusi