Ericsson deploys its first LTE network in North America

Ericsson Inc. (ERIC) supplied the network equipment for MetroPCS Communications Inc.’s LTE rollout in the Dallas area.
The operator is offering services on one device, the Samsung Craft, a dual-mode handset that operates on the carrier’s CDMA and LTE networks. MetroPCS deployed LTE services last week in Las Vegas, using network equipment from Samsung Telecommunications America.
Ericsson said its network equipment for MetroPCS was a custom solution that allows MetroPCS to reuse a substantial part of its existing infrastructure.
In an interview with Thomas Noren, head of Product Line LTE at Ericsson, Noren said the company upgraded MetroPCS’s transmission to the base station site “so we are now using an Ericsson solution for the transmission that is common for both CDMA and LTE. You can use one transport network and share the bandwidth and get synergies from using the same IP connectivity for both technologies so this is future-proof and a very sustainable solution that offers synergies and simplifies network management. It lowers costs. It simplifies the network.”
Ericsson is supplying the end-to-end solution for MetroPCS — its RBS 6000 base station, which supports LTE and GSM-based protocols; its IP-RAN, which allows MetroPCS to operate its CDMA and LTE networks over a common connection, its Evolved Packet Core; and network services.
“We also have deployed our EPC, our state-of-the-art gateway thats based on a true IP platform as well as our MME (Mobility Management Entity),” Noren said. “They basically bought the entire end-to-end solution from Ericsson … It’s up to Ericsson to make sure things work end to end and we certainly take that responsiblity.” Noren noted that by using one equipment vendor, MetroPCS launched faster because the carrier didnt need to worry about interoperability testing between network vendors.
Noren, who holds the distinction as the world’s first LTE customer, said TeliaSonera, which deployed the world’s first LTE network in Norway and Sweden, said TeliaSonera is seeing download speeds of 40 to 50 megabits per second. “The performance is very, very good.”
Ericsson said it expects to own 25% of the essential patents for LTE, making it the largest patent holder in the industry.