LTE--It’s not just VZW’s network, it’s Verizon’s

The initial trials of 2008 are also expected to proceed slowly. The final standard for LTE hasn’t been set by the 3GPP, so no vendor can submit commercial equipment for testing. But the radio aspects of the standard have been finalized, meaning each vendor can hand over its basic base station and RF gear to Vodafone and Verizon next year for benchmark performance testing.

Verizon and Vodafone have not revealed too many details about the scope and logistics of the trial, but Lynch said it is because many of those details haven’t been decided yet. He said each vendor has volunteered to test their equipment in a different market. That likely means the five named vendors--Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia Siemens, Ericsson, Motorola and Nortel Networks--will set up shop in a different city in either VZW’s U.S. territory or Vodafone’s European and Asian territories.

The trials will most likely start with pre-standard radio gear, and while they will take place in individual ‘markets,’ they won’t initially be full field trials, said Danny Locklear, Nortel’s director of wireless product marketing. Most likely the vendors involved will start in 2008 with a single cell site and base station, performing basic radio interface trials. Later that year, as more of the LTE standard becomes clear, Locklear said, the trials will likely expand those trials to test the overall functionality of the radio network, possibly expanding the trials to multiple cell sites.

“The expectation is it would be a pilot, focusing on part of the market,” Locklear said. It won’t be until 2009 that Nortel or its competitors would be ready for full-fledged field trials, assuming that devices with LTE radios embedded are even available, he said.

Though Vodafone and Verizon have not revealed which vendors will be conducting trials in which markets, Locklear said it is a reasonable assumption that the two carriers will work with their incumbent vendors. That means Nortel and Alcatel-Lucent will likely install their kits in the U.S., and Ericsson and Nokia Siemens will in overseas markets. If that’s the case, Verizon Wireless will most certainly be paying attention to the NSN and Ericsson portion of the trials, said Peter Jarich, Current Analysis wireless infrastructure analyst. As a CDMA carrier, Verizon Wireless has been locked into vendor relationships with CDMA giants Nortel and Lucent since its beginnings.

“It’s clear this is an open opportunity for both Vodafone and Verizon to look for new vendors,” Jarich said. “They will want to trial all of the equipment, not just the incumbents’.”

For NSN, the opportunity to get into Verizon Wireless networks is particularly meaningful as it removes all obstacles to selling to the entire Tier 1 carrier community in the U.S. NSN’s WiMAX portfolio landed it a coveted spot in Sprint’s WiMAX network. A commercial contract with Verizon for LTE would put Nokia Siemens gear in every nationwide operator’s network, said Mark Slater, vice president of North American sales and marketing for NSN.

“If we turn back the clock, there was 60% of the U.S. market that wasn’t available to us because of CDMA,” Slater said. “Going forward, we’ll have 100% of the market open to us. That’s exciting.”