LTE Wikipedia entry

LTE

Verizon adopts LTE for 4G wireless platform

Verizon adopts LTE for 4G wireless platform

Elena Malykhina

InformationWeek

11/29/2007 6:30 PM

Verizon on Thursday disclosed plans to roll out its fourth-generation mobile broadband network using a technology called Long Term Evolution, while also adopting a common access platform with Vodafone to provide services worldwide based on the technology. LTE is a high-speed cellular technology developed by the Third Generation Partnership Project standards organization, known as 3GPP. LTE is an upgrade to High Speed Downlink Packet Access, a GSM implementation of a 3G cellular technology that is capable of providing speeds of up to 10 Mbps and global roaming. Nearly 24 million subscribers worldwide will be using services based on LTE by 2012, according to Juniper Research. LTE earlier this month was chosen by the GSM Association as the preferred standard for fourth-generation wireless services. The other two proposed standards were WiMax and Qualcomm-backed Ultra Mobile Broadband. Verizon and Vodafone, the joint owners of U.S. cellular carrier Verizon Wireless, will begin testing LTE starting next year. LTE equipment will be supplied by leading vendors Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia-Siemens, and Nortel; all five have collaborated with the 3GPP in developing high-speed cellular standards. Nortel is a long-time partner of Verizon, providing the carrier with networking gear for advanced wireless services. Last year, Nortel announced a 5-year, $2-billion agreement to provide Verizon with 3G technology known as EVDO. "4G is all about the user experience, allowing not only mobile video, music, and gaming, but also a whole lot of new connections in our cameras, our cars, and even our home appliances. With consumers eager to take advantage of all these possibilities, the network will experience significant increases in bandwidth demand," said Richard Lowe, president of carrier networks at Nortel, in an e-mail. Verizon also plans to work with consumer electronics makers, in addition to mobile phone makers, since there will be demand for all types of devices with embedded LTE functionality in the future, the company said. The phone makers include LG Electronics, Samsung, Motorola, Nokia, and Sony Ericsson. "A number of factors are setting the stage for our 4G network migration; most importantly, our view of customers' evolving appetite for more information, entertainment, and functionality, combined with an increasing customer expectation for easy access, high speed, easy handling, and seamless mobility. With a host of new devices and applications, and a particular focus on embedded wireless in virtually every piece of electronics you buy in any store, we believe LTE is the best technology with global scale to deliver on the promise," said Richard Lynch, Verizon's executive VP and CTO, said in a statement. Verizon's decision to embrace LTE is a positive development in the wireless industry, just like the decision to open up its wireless network to outside mobile devices, software, and applications starting next year. Going forward, however, the carrier's cellular services arm, Verizon Wireless, will be faced with several challenges as it deploys LTE. Such a deployment will be a natural transition for Vodafone since it already uses GSM/HSDPA technology in Europe, Verizon Wireless uses CDMA technology, which was developed by Qualcomm and is incompatible with GSM/HSDPA. Verizon could have chosen a next-generation CDMA technology as an upgrade, but both Vodafone and Verizon have stated in the past that choosing LTE as a common platform would allow their customers to roam freely between the carriers' networks. Verizon said it will continue supporting its CDMA customers and expanding its existing 3G EVDO network for years to come. It's still unclear what the carrier plans to do once those customers start demanding 4G capabilities.

Ericsson sees weak 4Q sales, shares slide

NEW YORK — Telecom equipment maker Ericsson on Tuesday (Nov. 20) predicted a weak fourth quarter due to tightening U.S. and European demand and unrest in emerging markets, sending its shares down 11 percent.

After issuing a profit warning in the third quarter, the world's biggest maker of mobile-network gear said that sales and margins for the fourth quarter would be at the lower end of a forecast range it had given as recently as last month.

Analysts and investors said they were concerned about the company's ability to monitor the performance of its business and were disappointed Ericsson did not give a clear sign when it would start to see improvements.

"It's not good news," said Leo Schmidt, an equities analyst at insurer Chubb Corp, which owns Ericsson shares. He said investors were spooked by the repeatedly revised forecasts.

"That makes people wonder how much management has control of the business," he said.

Ericsson had said in October that fourth-quarter sales would be between 53 billion and 60 billion Swedish crowns ($8.4 billion to $9.6 billion) and that operating margins would be in the mid-teen percentage range.

Chief Executive Carl-Henric Svanberg told investors that it had since become clear that Ericsson would be hurt by tightening network equipment demand in the United States and Europe, a weakening U.S. dollar and political unrest in some markets such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Thailand.

"We can see that the U.S. and we can see that Europe is tightening," he said. "There are operators that are clearly downgrading their investments for 2008."

Ericsson said it expected a slight decline in business from networks in Europe where operators involved in mergers and acquisitions are slowing spending on upgrades for high-speed wireless data services such as Web surfing.

"We just assume that we'll have continued disruptions from consolidation," Svanberg said. "We do not think for at least the next year that we will have any major (data) upgrades."

He said that tightening U.S. spending could relate to general economic concerns among operators.

Shares in the Sweden-based company tumbled 11 percent to close at 16 crowns in Stockholm, having fallen as low as 15.92, their lowest since February 2004. Its U.S.-listed shares finished down $3.42, or 12 percent, at $25.11.

MARGINS UNDER PRESSURE

Asked whether Ericsson's board still supported management given Tuesday's news, Svanberg said: "I must say we have in this situation very strong support and good cooperation with the board, so there's no change there."

Ericsson is focused on winning share in emerging markets, where it sees the biggest growth opportunities.

"Whatever you lose in market share you will not regain. Time is of an importance here," he said.

But the comments led at least one analyst to question whether this strategy would put pressure on future profits.

Ericsson's biggest competitors include Nokia Siemens, a venture of Nokia Oyj and Siemens, China's Huawei Technologies Co and Alcatel-Lucent, which had also issued profit warnings this year.

Chief Financial Officer Hans Vestberg told investors he expected wireless network building projects to weigh on Ericsson's margins for the next several quarters. Such projects can take six to nine months, or even up to 12 months, he said.

Svanberg said that "in a perfect world" margins could improve in the second half of next year as the company starts new projects, but his reluctance to commit to a timeframe for improvements worried some analysts.

"It raised more questions than it provided answers," said RBC Capital analyst Mark Sue. "People are still trying to figure out where things might settle."

The double-digit percentage drop in the shares on Tuesday followed a plunge of 30 percent when Ericsson shocked the market with its third-quarter warning. It said it was receiving a greater share of sales from costly network projects and less than it had expected from more lucrative network upgrades.

Within days of the warning, Ericsson replaced CFO Karl-Henrik Sundstrom with Vestberg. It also promised to improve its ability to monitor business conditions and avoid such market shocks in future. (Additional writing and reporting by Adam Cox and Jerker Hellstrom in Stockholm: Editing by David Holmes, Paul Bolding; Editing by Gary Hill)

By: Sinead Carew

Samsung Using Skyworks Products For Femtocell Applications

Woburn, MA -- Skyworks Solutions, Inc. announced that Samsung is leveraging multiple solutions from its Linear Products portfolio including transceivers, power amplifiers and LNAs for use in FEMTO cell applications. FEMTO cells, or small cellular base stations designed for residential and small business environments, help provide enhanced coverage in wireless networks and solve very real, near-term signal coverage and capacity issues. According to In-Stat, worldwide FEMTO cell subscriptions (installed devices) are expected to grow to 40 million by 2011 and surpass 100 million end-users over the next five years, representing a market opportunity for FEMTO cell devices of over $4 billion.

"Skyworks is uniquely suited to support the demanding system requirements of FEMTO cells given our technology breadth and depth," said Stan Swearingen, Skyworks' vice president and general manager of Linear Products. "In fact, the architecture being utilized for Samsung's FEMTO cell systems is an example of our ability to leverage proven and innovative technology across diverse markets."

Products entering volume production include, among others, the:

• SKY74068: highly integrated transmitter for dual-band CDMA applications operating in cellular CDMA, AMPS, and PCS modes. The only external components needed for operation are bias resistors, bypass capacitors, and passives for the PLL loop filter.

• SKY74092: a highly integrated CDMA/PCS LNA for dual-band and tri-mode. The device provides low noise amplification with high linearity to achieve a high dynamic range. Up to four gain steps of low noise amplification are supported through a three-wire read/write serial bus interface.

• SKY74100: a highly integrated receiver for tri-band CDMA applications with GPS capability.

• SKY77410: a load insensitive power amplifier (LIPA(TM)) module for WCDMA applications that meets stringent spectral linearity requirements with high power added efficiency for power output of up to 27.5 dBm, even with a load mismatch of 4:1 VSWR -- eliminating the need for an isolator.

SOURCE: Skyworks Solutions, Inc.

Nokia Siemens May Lose Indian GSM Contract to Ericsson

Local reports are suggesting that Ericsson could win the entire GSM network tender from India's BSNL as Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) has not yet formally agreed to the terms from the company. The company had planned to split the 22.75 million GSM lines contract 60:40 between Ericsson and NSN. Ericsson's current allocation is worth around US$1.3 billion while NSN's is worth around US$954 million.

Nokia Siemens did originally tender at a higher cost than Ericsson, hence the smaller share of the tender - but is required to match Ericsson's price if it wants to take up the contract.

An unnamed BSNL executive told The Economic Times that if NSN failed to pick up the purchase orders within the next couple of days, another option would be to float a fresh tender.

When asked if BSNL would award the entire contract to Ericsson, BSNL chairman and managing director Kuldeep Goyal told the newspaper "I hope they (NSN) come around. However, if they do not agree, then we will have to explore other options".

BSNL's tender has been mired in controversy ever since it was sent for RFP last year. Initially the tender was for a massive 45 million lines, but the government blocked this and it was shrunk to just under 23 million lines. Then arguments with Motorola who claimed to have bid lower than Ericsson for the tender, but was disqualified from competing on technical grounds.

Under the terms of the final award, Ericsson bid the lowest figure - reported to be about US$91 per line. Nokia - prior to the infrastructure merger with Siemens had bid around US$177, with a significantly higher figure reported from Siemens. The merged company may be having difficulty in pulling down its costs to the level offered by Ericsson.

Andrew and Nokia Siemens Networks Revamp Filter Relationship

WESTCHESTER, IL, October 24, 2007—Andrew Corporation and Nokia Siemens Networks have agreed to revise their long-standing relationship in custom filter production. The agreement provides more design and manufacturing control to Nokia Siemens Networks, supported by Andrew’s research and development expertise, as it readies to market its next generation radio frequency filter products.

Under the agreement, Nokia Siemens Networks acquired the rights to all Andrew intellectual property related to Nokia Siemens Networks’ filter products for wireless networks. In addition, certain Andrew personnel in Italy will continue to provide engineering and technical work exclusively for the Nokia Siemens Networks products under an engineering services arrangement.

The companies also have agreed to rearrange their filter manufacturing relationship, including use of contract manufacturing partners. Nokia Siemens Networks assumes responsibility for the production of its own filter products currently done at an Andrew facility in Shenzhen, China, and by contract manufacturers in Eastern Europe. This arrangement also includes the transfer of production assets and inventories associated with Nokia Siemens Networks manufacturing operations. Andrew retains ownership of the cost-efficient, world-class Shenzhen facility and will expand filter production there on behalf of its other customers.

The transaction enables Andrew to increase its direct-to-operator channel focus while retaining a strong relationship with Nokia Siemens Networks, as well as other key original equipment manufacturers, which includes the supply of various other products and systems for wireless networks around the world.

“We are pleased that this agreement meets the needs of both companies, while continuing the strong supplier relationship we have enjoyed with Nokia Siemens Networks for many years,” said Mickey Miller, executive vice president and group president, Wireless Network Solutions, Andrew Corporation. “These moves will build a foundation for improved profitability and new opportunities for research and development services for Andrew. In addition, we are able to concentrate more resources and management time on areas of the business that offer more profitable growth opportunities.”