T-Mobile USA taps Ericsson, Nokia for 3G

T-Mobile USA, following up on the commitment it made last month to spend $2.6 billion on a 3G network rollout, has named Ericsson and Nokia as infrastructure suppliers for portions of that project.

Ericsson confirmed it will be T-Mobile’s vendor for UMTS/WCDMA systems in “certain markets,” including New York City, which is scheduled to be operational in 2007. The agreement is contingent upon T-Mobile USA closing on the spectrum it won during the Advanced Wireless Services auction a few months ago, the vendor said in a statement.

Ericsson previously worked with T-Mobile USA on it GSM/GPRS installation. In the 3G project, Ericsson also will provide services, including network planning, civil construction, installation, testing and network optimization.

Nokia, another long-time vendor to T-Mobile, also issued a statement saying it has won part of the project covering other markets. Nokia also said T-Mobile will be the first carrier in the U.S. to deploy its Flexi multi-frequency base station.

Given the existing relationships both suppliers had with the carrier, the deployment announcements don’t come as much of a surprise, though it remains to be seen what percentage of the entire 3G project each vendor has been awarded. Financial terms were not disclosed in either case.

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