10/20/2009
Wireless Review/Telephony
If you’re a foreign infrastructure vendor looking to gain ground in the highly competitive 4G market, the thing to do is open up up a long-term evolution (LTE)–preferably somewhere on the outskirts of Dallas. ZTE is the latest equipment supplier to do just that, joining Nokia Siemens Networks (NYSE:NOK, NYSE:SI), Huawei and Fujitsu in building new 4G R&D facilities or expanding their current labs in the technoburb of Richardson, Texas.
ZTE’s new lab is focusing on the CDMA side of North American equation, promoting a dual-mode CDMA-LTE platform for operators looking to migrate from the former to the latter. How well that strategy will work depends on how many operators out there are still looking to deploy CDMA networks. Established operators like Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ, NYSE:VOD) have no qualms with selecting separate CDMA and LTE vendors, both having tapped Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) to build their radio networks. But while the CDMA build is largely completed in this country, occasionally a new entrant does emerge. The most notable example would be Cox Communications, which did indeed pick a ZTE’s compatriot Huawei to design its new CDMA network.
All of this LTE activity in the US should come as no surprise. North America has become a hotbed of LTE activity since both VZW and AT&T (NYSE:T) have committed to deploying commercial networks in the next two years. Even smaller providers like MetroPCS (NYSE:PCS) have jumped on the bandwagon. NSN has been particularly aggressive in seeking a foothold in the US, bidding first on Nortel’s CDMA and LTE assets, and–after failing to win them at auction–launching a new LTE development center which it is staffing with 500 people.
And where is Ericsson in all of this? By winning the Nortel assets NSN originally bid on, Ericsson got the biggest lab of them all, acquiring not only Nortel’s wireless HQ in Dallas, but its R&D facilities in Canada.
