T-mobile contracts $4 billion upgrade
NEW ORLEANS — Tmobile USA on Tuesday said that Nokia Siemens Networks and LM Ericsson AB will supply the network equipment for its new wireless broadband network, a project worth $4 billion.
T-mobile is commissioning a “4G LTE” network, the same technology used by Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc. for their highspeed networks. It will use, in part, radio frequencies handed over by AT&T after the bigger company backed off its deal to buy T-mobile because of opposition from federal regulators.
In addition to handing over spectrum licenses, AT&T gave T-mobile $3 billion in cash, which will help finance the upgrade. T-mobile plans to have the network live next year, covering 75 percent of the 25
largest cities.
Sweden’s Ericsson is one of the main suppliers for the LTE networks of Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Sprint Nextel Corp., along with Alcatel-lucent SA of France.
For Nokia Siemens Networks, a joint venture of Finland’s Nokia Corp. and Siemens AG of Germany, the T-mobile order represents a new chance to get into the U.S. market for network equipment. It got a $7 billion order from Harbinger Capital, a hedge fund, to build a network for its startup, Lightsquared, but that project appears moribund because regulators concluded it would interfere with GPS navigation.
T-mobile USA is making the announcement on the first day of CTIA Wireless, the U.S. cell-phone industry trade show, in New Orleans.
The company is the fourthlargest wireless carrier in the U.S., with 33.2 million devices on its network. It’s a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG of Germany.
While T-mobile doesn’t carry the iphone, later this year customers can take their unlocked devices to the carrier’s network, Neville Ray, the company’s chief technology officer, said. The iphone 4S uses 1900-megahertz spectrum and after upgrades at T-mobile this year it will be compatible with both AT&T and T-mobile’s network, Ray said, speaking to reporters Monday night at a dinner in New Orleans.
The contract is a significant development for Espoo, Finland-based Nokia Siemens Networks, which has struggled in a market dominated by Zurich-based Ericsson AG. T-mobile says it will reuse some of its existing airwaves and include some of the spectrum it acquired from AT&T earlier this year for the LTE network construction.
“We’re making great progress on our four billion dollar 4G network transformation,” Ray said in a statement. Ray also said he expects nationwide LTE coverage in 2013.