Nokia Siemens in joint LTE development with DoCoMo

While other mobile operators talk about implementing LTE, the next technology step after HSPA, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) and the leading Japanese operator, NTT DoCoMo, have announced that NSN's LTE base station product has been chosen for DoCoMo's Super 3G (LTE) base station project.

The new base station, which NSN has developed with its partner Panasonic Mobile Communications, will be used by DoCoMo for trials of LTE together with WiMAX and CDMA DO (data only) Revision C  in its labs outside Tokyo. The hope to commercially deploy a network using some, or all, of the technology in the 2011-2012 timeframe.

DoCoMo has been a long-term pioneer of wireless high-speed technologies--being the first to deploy a commercial W-CDMA network in 2001, several years before other mobile operators in the US and Europe. However, industry observers claim that this move by NSN is an attempt to position itself as a supplier with technical vision and remove itself from the crippling price war that is impacting both NSN and other infrastructure vendors. NSN has also been selected as one of four vendors for Verizon Wireless's LTE trial.

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