Nokia Siemens

Want to get married in Vegas? There’s an app for that, says NSN

We’re hearing a lot these days about how carriers are seeing their average revenue per user (ARPU) go down with the advent of unlimited voice and data plans, so they will have to make their money partnering with developers of smartphone applications or themselves offer integrated services.

At SuperCOMM 09, I heard from Michael Mullineaux, marketing manager at Nokia Siemens Networks, who demonstrated an application that would combine location with e-commerce and book an evening in Las Vegas from a mobile device.

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?

Telecom Timeout: Recession reactions

This week’s Telecom Timeout features Q4 results from Global Crossing, Comcast, Sprint Nextel and Rogers Communications, as well as a Carrier Ethernet progress report from the Juniper Networks and Nokia Siemens partnership, the results of the U.S. broadband stimulus package, and a 4G update on WiMAX and LTE from Verizon Wireless, Comcast, Clearwire, Qualcomm and CenturyTel. HP announces the new formation of its own telecom group, Nortel finds at least one buyer for some of its assets and YouTube is experimenting with downloadable content for a fee.

Keeping you up-to-date on the latest in telecommunications industry news, views and strategy, Telecom Timeout and its weekly video blog track the highs and lows of the industry. Join us daily on Telecom Timeout for conversations on developing telecom trends and in-depth analysis of service providers, VoIP, wireless, IPTV, telecom regulation, and more.