INTERVIEW: Ericsson Eyes LTE Deals With NTT DoCoMo, Others

L.M. Ericsson Telephone Co (ERIC) may win a number of new contracts for Long Term Evolution, or LTE, network equipment in the coming year from operators including Japan's NTT DoCoMo (DCM), the Swedish telecom equipment vendor's head of radio networks, Ulf Ewaldsson, said in a recent interview.

Ewaldsson said several trials with operators are onngoing, and that NTT DoCoMo will decide in 2010 whether to choose Ericsson, the world's largest supplier of network equipment, as its supplier of LTE technology.

Chinese operators including China Mobile (CHL) are also eyeing the technology and several emerging markets will become interesting once LTE gets more widespread and the larger scale drives down costs, Ewaldsson said.

LTE networks will first be commercially launched in 2010, Ewaldsson said, with volumes expected to increase rapidly during 2011.

Compared with current third-generation technology standards like Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), LTE handles data traffic at much faster speeds, and allows more extensive coverage, faster downloads, and more advanced services such as mobile video and gaming.

The Stockholm-based company, the world's largest network equipment maker by sales, has so far won orders for LTE equipment from Swedish operator TeliaSonera AB (TLSN.SK) and U.S.-based carriers Verizon Wireless and MetroPCS Communications Inc.

Verizon Wireless is a joint venture between Verizon Communications (VZ) and U.K.-based Vodafone Group PLC (VOD).

Ewaldsson said operators mainly choose suppliers of LTE equipment on the basis of the past track record, underscoring the importance to the company of these early orders.

LTE will make possible a number of new busines opportunities, such as the possibility to connect devices such as cars, surveillance cameras or entire homes to the Internet, Ewaldsson said.

Company Web site: www.ericsson.com

-By Gustav Sandstrom, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]