Ericsson claims LTE roaming first, wins Russian LTE deal

Ericsson has been on an LTE roll this week, claiming a first with LTE roaming in Europe and winning a major deal to provide network infrastructure in Russia.

The Swedish equipment vendor said it has supplied a new product to Swisscom that enables the operator to become th efirst European operator to launch LTE roaming services on a global basis. This means customers will be able to use their LTE devices in South Korea, Canada and Hong Kong--at least initially.

LTE roaming is based on diameter signalling, a protocol used between virtually all nodes in mobile broadband networks. As mobile broadband traffic grows, Ericsson said its new diameter signalling controller will also alleviate some of the signalling load and make the signalling network more reliable.

"Launching 4G/LTE roaming was an important step for us and all our 4G/LTE subscribers," Swisscom CTO Heinz Herren said in a statement. "They will now be able to use their services while travelling to many different countries in Asia and the Americas."

Meanwhile in a separate announcement this week, Ericsson said it has been picked by Russian telecoms giant MTS as its leading LTE vendor under a three-year deal starting in the second quarter of this year. The company said it will deploy the LTE network in four regions covering more than half of Russia--Siberian, Ural, Volga, and Southern Federal Districts--supplying at least 10,000 new-generation products from the RBS 6000 series.

"We intend to start building 4G networks in Russia in the near future to provide subscribers in approximately 15 regions in Russia with high-speed data services by the end of 2013," MTS CEO Andrei Dubovskov said in a statement. He added there is high demand for mobile broadband in the regions it is targeting with Ericsson.

For more:
- see this release
- see this separate Ericsson/MTS release

Related Articles:
Ericsson misses Q1 forecasts, says quarter in line with own expectations
Ericsson upbeat about network gear market in 2013
Report: Ericsson readies bid for Microsoft's IPTV software unit
Ericsson rules the LTE roost, but TD-LTE will boost rivals
Report: Ericsson, Huawei tie for top spot in RAN market share
Ericsson's North American sales surge, vendor predicts improving margins