Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent score wireless wins at XO, MetroPCS

Alcatel-Lucent will be the vendor of MetroPCS’s expansion out East. Metro said today it has selected Alcatel-Lucent’s CDMA kit for its new network on the Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) frequencies, extending its earlier contract with the vendor for CDMA infrastructure on the PCS airwaves. Ericsson also inked a carrier deal, announcing today it will deploy its point-to-point wireless gear in XO Communications carrier backhaul network.

Alcatel will deploy CDMA 1X gear in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Las Vegas, new markets where Metro won licenses in last year’s AWS auctions. The vendor will also install AWS infrastructure in Dallas, Detroit and Los Angeles, where Metro also acquired new spectrum but currently runs PCS networks.

Since the licenses occupy unique spectral bands (2.1 GHz on the downlink and 1.9 GHz on the uplink), vendors had to retune their existing base stations for the new frequencies, but wide interest in the new bands has resulted in every major vendor supporting them. Earlier this year Leap Wireless began deploying in the AWS bands, naming its incumbent vendors Alcatel-Lucent and Nortel Networks as well as new entrant Huawei to the contract. T-Mobile, the biggest spectrum winner in the auction, is using Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks UMTS gear to build out a nationwide 3G network over its AWS frequencies. Meanwhile Verizon is contemplating a rollout of 4G over AWS. It and partner Vodafone plan to trial Long Term Evolution equipment over AWS next year with five different vendors.

Metro and Alcatel-Lucent did not attach a dollar amount to the contract, but with the country’s largest metro region, New York, on the list, the amount won’t be paltry. Metro has pursued a business model based on all-you-can-eat local wireless plans, similar to the business model of Leap, except Metro targets major urban centers rather than small and mid-sized markets. Metro began in San Francisco and Dallas but last year moved into L.A. The AWS auction, however, was key to its expansion plans, giving it the key licenses to move east of the Mississippi.

Meanwhile, Ericsson is the second supplier XO has tapped to build the point-to-point backhaul and high-capacity wireless links in XO’s Nextlink network. Ericsson will deploy its Mini-Link Traffic Node microwave transmission platform in Nextlink’s 75-market footprint. The platform will be primarily targeted at Nextlink’s wireless operator customers for use as cellular backhaul, though Nextlink is using the system to provide direct high-capacity connections to enterprises.

XO relaunched Nextlink last year as a wireless backhaul network after failing half a decade before to make a broadband access business out of its 28 GHZ local multipoint distribution system (LMDS) licenses. Since then, Nextlink has been on an expansion spree, adding dozens of markets every quarter to its footprint. In addition to Ericsson, Nextlink has named Ceragon Networks as a wireless equipment provider, using its FibAir high-capacity Ethernet bridge radios for both backhaul and access deployments.