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Verizon, AT&T in position to alter vendor community
Is Verizon Wireless' LTE vendor decision the death knell for certain companies in the infrastructure community? This week the operator announced Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson will build the company's LTE network that will light up commercially in 2010. The award was a blow to bankrupt Nortel, which recently abandoned its WiMAX business to focus solely on LTE as the future. Chinese vendor Huawei failed to secure a stronger foothold in the U.S. market, while Motorola, which has been pitching a strong LTE story given its leadership in WiMAX, also lost out.
These billion-dollar awards now position Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson as leaders in the LTE space. With Verizon positioned as a first-move in the LTE market, what other near-term opportunities are there for vendors to fight over? China Mobile has an aggressive LTE rollout plan for 2010 as well, although it needs a vendor with TDD LTE expertise. And NTT DoCoMo also has streamlined plans. AT&T, while not rolling out LTE until 2011 is already in an RFP process to choose vendors for LTE. Nortel, of course, is responding to that RFP. It has to be fighting tooth and nail to win a big contract from AT&T. To be shut out of the U.S. LTE market altogether would spell disaster for the vendor, which already is a big supplier for both Verizon and AT&T on the 3G side.
Moreover, big contracts with European operators appear to be some three years away. According to the Financial Times, Vodafone, France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom plan to delay spending billions on contracts in part because they want to reassure their investors they won't spend like crazy during tough economic times. Of course, many of those operators don't have the spectrum to deploy LTE yet. Can those vendors who lose out in the U.S. afford to wait for the rest of the world to catch up with LTE contracts?
The bottom line may very well be that Verizon and AT&T will significantly alter the landscape of the infrastructure community.--Lynnette
Comments
Posted by Anonymous | February 19, 2009 - 10:05am
Remember Verizon saying that LTE is primarily going to be used by Laptops. Which laptops do they have in mind? Qualcomm Snapdragon laptops? Because all Intel based laptops are going to have WiMAX embedded in them. So adding dumb additional cost with an LTE solution is a waste. Also by the time Verizon gets their LTE plans rolling more WiFi-WiMAX inexpensive solutions will be on the market. So good luck Verizon? LTE is surely a prescription for disaster.
Posted by Indy | February 19, 2009 - 10:08am
Why does Verizon choose LTE? Because if they choose WiMAX which is a open standard, they will have to fight for subscribers with Sprint/Clearwire. So it is better to choose LTE so that they can lock in the subscriber.
Posted by BOB20092010 | February 19, 2009 - 10:12am
Verizon, messed up big time with CDMA2000 with having no global roaming. This is their second time. One will need a gloliath multi-mode chipset to support their global roaming needs. LTE therefore will die the slow death of CDMA2000.
Posted by Telcom Man | February 19, 2009 - 3:28pm
Poor Verizon and AT&T. They should have consulted with Anonymous and Indy before they spent billions on 700Mhz licenses. Can you believe that Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson are buying into this doomed LTE strategy. LOL :)
Posted by Telcom Man | February 19, 2009 - 3:28pm
Poor Verizon and AT&T. They should have consulted with Anonymous and Indy before they spent billions on 700Mhz licenses. Can you believe that Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson are buying into this doomed LTE strategy. LOL :)
Posted by 3GPP Chairman | February 19, 2009 - 6:17pm
History will tell: LTE IS the future. WiMAX will die the slow death. Well that's assuming WiMAX won't die first in its current slow birth process.
Posted by Jenavive | February 23, 2009 - 2:06pm
These Wimax/Clearwire advocates pop up everytime a LTE article is published. The same 5 guys are all over the web.
They are still convinced that somehow someway they will champion the 4G airspace. This diehard devotion to Sprint/Clearwire is borderline disturbing. ;-)
I really pity the fools.
Posted by Quemann | March 1, 2009 - 6:18pm
For now, LTE is not a commercially available technology,of which Release 8 is due some time in March. Besides,LTE's backhaul scenario has not been fixed yet, but it's overhyped. AT&T says LTE will be on the market bby 2015 and will still be in the niche. But why does VW hurry up to experiment with LTE, only to run to meet the trouble? You'll get to know soon.
Sprint Nextel lost 4.5 million customers to AT&T,VW and others last year. But who knows? Perhaps WiMAX may upset the apple cart sooner or later. It's jilarious to see technology wars of any kind heat up. Some say two competing technologies are better than one, bu there's a flip side as well. Hype and hoopla about any new technology may cost arms and legs, boosting overheads way far beyond and loading a heavier monkey on the shoulders of consumers in the end.
I'd rather call any ongoing technology war of any kind, if excessive, a man-made affliction, which consumers will have to suffer from in the long run.
Besides, any advocates of any technology shouldn't be called the fools because they support a technology I am not affiliated with.
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