Ericsson

Huawei and mobile infrastructure: Taking on the heavies

Didn’t we discuss Huawei just last week in the optical arena? Yes we did. Now everybody’s talking Huawei in mobile infrastructure, and not just as the low-cost Chinese telecom equipment purveyor category. Huawei did its time as the low-priced spread, and now grudging respect, even fear among competitors is growing.

The most recent Infonetics Research report on mobile and LTE equipment asked service provider decision-makers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia-Pac what criteria they use when choosing a mobile infrastructure vendor. The bottom line is that Huawei is on everyone’s radar for good technology and good value for the price, and ZTE is on the rise, too, according to Stephane Teral, Infonetics principal analyst for mobile and FMC.

Infonetics notes that Huawei is overtaking Alcatel-Lucent on many fronts and is nipping at Nokia Siemens Networks’ market position in the mobile infrastructure space. It’s true, however, that the service providers all named NSN in their top three mobile infrastructure vendor lists, and that Ericsson got the highest ratings for service and support (nice news for two vendors that had disastrous quarters).

Motorola’s LTE win: A reversal of fortune?

Motorola’s financial struggles have been much more public than its LTE wireless broadband capabilities of late, but its first public LTE win may help reverse the headlines if handled well.

KDDI Corp., Japan’s second-largest wireless operator, chose Motorola’s Home & Network Mobility unit to be a key development partner for its 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network. The win gives Motorola’s LTE capabilities more credibility when going up against other LTE vendors, including Ericsson, which recently won the bid for Nortel’s LTE assets.

The Motorola contract may be larger than $1 billion, according to analyst reports, although KDDI previously announced it could spend about $5.3 billion for a nationwide LTE network. Questions are floating about whether Motorola’s win is tied to a low pricing strategy. Japan’s NEC also won a KDDI contract to supply LTE equipment. KDDI launched its CDMA network with Motorola as its primary vendor, so Motorola has traction with the provider.

Motorola’s role is to implement the basic LTE infrastructure and base stations. KDDI hopes to launch its LTE service by December 2012, which still puts it in a trailing second place to NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s largest wireless operator that plans to launch LTE service a full two years earlier, at the end of 2010.

Motorola is also conducting LTE trials with China Mobile Ltd.

Breaking: Ericsson bids $730mm for Nortel’s CDMA, LTE assets

Ericsson has finally entered the Nortel fray, announcing their starting bid at $730 million for bankrupt vendor’s LTE and CDMA asset a day before the official auction is held. It will now be (at least) a three-horse race between Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), private equity firm MatlinPatterson and Ericsson. While MatlinPatterson will likely bow out early, both equipment vendors have a lot to gain, particularly as they try to position themselves to win Verizon’s lucrative LTE business.

“There’s synergies, there’s scale, and both of them are part of the Verizon network to move to LTE,” said Akshay Sharma, research director at Gartner. He said both companies would benefit from being able to offer Verizon a smoother upgrade path to LTE, which could win some business from Alcatel-Lucent which already has as a strong advantage when it comes to LTE deployments.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Ericsson could be quite serious about capturing that advantage. “We are pursuing the deal because it seems to be an interesting opportunity and we are always looking for ways to create value for Ericsson,” the paper quoted a Ericsson statement, adding “we will pursue this opportunity to the point it makes sense.”

Further Reading:

• Nortel wireless fire sale delivers North American footprint to NSN
More LTE vendors join the 4G party (but no cake for Nortel!)
• Will Verizon’s LTE rollout stumble over a little DoJ review?