Alcatel-Lucent Scores Another Key LTE Win in the U.S

Next Generation Communications Blog

Alcatel-Lucent Scores Another Key LTE Win in the U.S

A year ago, Alcatel-Lucent, which has been a key promoter of LTE technology as the most effective migration path from 2G/3G to 4G wireless networks, came away from Mobile World Congress 2009 with a significant feather in its LTE cap when Verizon named it a key supplier of Verizon's 4G network buildout.
 
Alcatel-Lucent had already been promoting LTE as a key component of its mobile broadband strategy for wireless operators looking to provide an optimal combination of speed and performance required to deliver the next generation of mobile content and applications.
 
Since then, Alcatel-Lucent has won several LTE contracts internationally, including Bouygues Telecom in France, SingTel in Singapore, and China Mobile, but with the intense competition in the American market, the world waited in anticipation for AT&T to announce its 4G strategy.
 
Now, a year later - on the eve of this year's Mobile World Congress - AT&T has announced it, too, has selected Alcatel-Lucent to build out its 4G network.  The win solidifies Alcatel-Lucent's dominance in the LTE space, now playing a pivotal role in the LTE deployments of the two largest American wireless operators.
 
Though AT&T is well behind its largest competitor - Verizon plans to begin rolling out its 4G access later this year - AT&T's strategy rests largely with device availability. Specifically, it believes that, by the time it's next generation network is ready for activation, device manufacturers will have already made a large number of 4G handsets available, and judging from AT&T's penchant for making a splash with groundbreaking handsets.
 
 
Alcatel-Lucent already provides equipment for AT&T's 3G network - that which delivers content and applications to the iPhone - and the new deal provides for a seamless migration of new equipment to 4G technology, allowing AT&T to upgrade its current technology rather than undertaking a major rip-and-replace project.
 
Among the LTE components Alcatel-Lucent will be supplying to AT&T are its LTE base stations, its Element Management Systems, and its 9900 Wireless Network Guardian, which provides visibility into the network for effective management of applications and services on the network.
 
Whether AT&T's strategy will allow it to catch up to Verizon, which will leverage its LTE network primarily for wireless broadband access at the outset, or not, remains to be seen. What is certain, however, is that Alcatel-Lucent has cemented itself in the global market as a dominant LTE supplier.
 
In addition, the fact that Alcatel-Lucent will be working behind the scenes with both major U.S. carriers only underscores the fact that the network will soon no longer be the differentiating asset. Rather, carriers will have to separate themselves from their competition through the applications, content, and services they deliver, a theory Alcatel-Lucent has also been promoting for some time, and was a key consideration when it launched the ng Connect program.


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