17 commercial LTE deployments, many more commitments

Trying to figure out winners and losers in the LTE space is going to take a few years to figure out, as operators test networks and announce trials before going commercial, but a new report from the Global Mobile Suppliers Association on LTE attempts to tally the numbers. The GSA counts 17 commercial LTE deployments around the world. The markets are diverse with a couple in the United States, many in the Nordic region, two in Uzbekistan and one in Estonia.
Looking at public releases, Ericsson, the world’s leading telecom equipment manufacturer, seems to count the most deployments, having relationships with TeliaSonera in Norway, Sweden and Finland; Verizon Wireless and MetroPCS Communications Inc. in the United States; with Vodafone in Germany and with operator EMT in Estonia.
Nokia Siemens Networks also can count numerous deployments, having its own relationship with TeliaSonera, Tele2 Sweden and Elisa in Finland. NSN also delivered the core for NTT DoCoMo’s LTE rollout.
ZTE Corp. is powering CSL Ltd.’s LTE network in Hong Kong, while fellow Chinese vendor Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. has networks up and running in Poland and Germany. Both Chinese equipment manufacturers have networks working in Uzbekistan.
While Alcatel-Lucent only has one commercially launched with Verizon Wireless, the company has a lot of momentum across the world. RCR Wireless News recently spoke with Ken Wirth, president of A-Lu’s 4G/LTE networks business, who said A-Lu counts seven announced commercial contracts in every region of the world.
“We’re clearly winning business across the globe.” Alcatel-Lucent is involved in 58 trials worldwide. VZ and Russia’s Vimpelcom have chosen A-Lu for an end-to-end solution, he noted. The company has worked with Chunghwa Telecom Laboratories on an LTE trial in Taiwan; with MTS in the Ukraine, with Orange, Vodafone and Bouygues Telecom in Europe and Singapore Telecom in Singapore, among others.
In the United States, Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent are the leaders, having secured contracts with Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility, while NSN is counting on its LightSquared contract to shore up its U.S. play.
The GSA counts 180 operators in 70 countries are testing the two LTE protocols, noting 128 firm commitments to deploy commercial services across 52 countries, and another 52 planned pilots in an 18 countries. About 64 LTE networks should be in service by the end of 2012, the GSA said.
“LTE operator commitments are developing faster than they did for HSPA, which until now had been the fastest developing mobile communications system. By comparing the number of operator commitments six months and 12 months after first commercial system launches for HSDPA, HSUPA, HSPA+ and LTE respectively, LTE proves to be the fastest developing mobile communications system technology ever,” the organization noted.