NEW YORK—AT&T, Inc. will begin field trials of its 4G mobile network technology later this year, with commercial deployment starting in 2011, and has selected Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent as vendors to supply the company with 4G LTE technology.
The three companies will work together to develop and deploy technology and equipment at cell sites across the nation in an effort to upgrade AT&T’s network—in January, AT&T disclosed that capital expenditures will total more than $18 billion in 2010 as it invests in the new technology.
The value of the Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent deals were not disclosed.
“This announcement is an important step forward in our ongoing mobile broadband strategy, which is focused on delivering the best possible combination of speed, performance, and available devices for customers at every level of technology deployment,” said John Stankey, president of AT&T Operations, in a statement.
Long-Term Evolution (LTE) is AT&T’s fourth-generation mobile network technology that provides “broadband” speed wirelessly. LTE is one of two competing 4G technologies currently being deployed in the United States—the other one is Clearwire’s WiMax, which is championed by Sprint Nextel—and will be the next-generation platform for GSM phone carriers such as AT&T and T-Mobile.
“As some competitors move away from their existing investment in niche 3G platforms, we are able to efficiently and quickly move toward LTE while enhancing our existing 3G performance and providing access to a strong ecosystem of customer devices,” Stankey said, referring to rival Verizon Wireless, which is also rolling out LTE technology despite not being a GSM carrier.
The 4G technologies can deliver speeds of more than 50Mps wirelessly. Currently, Clearwire has rolled out WiMax in several large cities, and expects to cover more than 120 million customers by the end of this year.
“This is a critical step forward in AT&T’s ongoing mobile broadband strategy to deliver and support the next generation of mobile applications. We look forward to being a part of the journey and see this as a starting point for further collaboration with AT&T to deliver an end-to-end IP solution for mobile broadband,” said Alcatel-Lucent CEO Ben Verwaayen in a statement.
The three companies will work together to develop and deploy technology and equipment at cell sites across the nation in an effort to upgrade AT&T’s network—in January, AT&T disclosed that capital expenditures will total more than $18 billion in 2010 as it invests in the new technology.
The value of the Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent deals were not disclosed.
“This announcement is an important step forward in our ongoing mobile broadband strategy, which is focused on delivering the best possible combination of speed, performance, and available devices for customers at every level of technology deployment,” said John Stankey, president of AT&T Operations, in a statement.
Long-Term Evolution (LTE) is AT&T’s fourth-generation mobile network technology that provides “broadband” speed wirelessly. LTE is one of two competing 4G technologies currently being deployed in the United States—the other one is Clearwire’s WiMax, which is championed by Sprint Nextel—and will be the next-generation platform for GSM phone carriers such as AT&T and T-Mobile.
“As some competitors move away from their existing investment in niche 3G platforms, we are able to efficiently and quickly move toward LTE while enhancing our existing 3G performance and providing access to a strong ecosystem of customer devices,” Stankey said, referring to rival Verizon Wireless, which is also rolling out LTE technology despite not being a GSM carrier.
The 4G technologies can deliver speeds of more than 50Mps wirelessly. Currently, Clearwire has rolled out WiMax in several large cities, and expects to cover more than 120 million customers by the end of this year.
“This is a critical step forward in AT&T’s ongoing mobile broadband strategy to deliver and support the next generation of mobile applications. We look forward to being a part of the journey and see this as a starting point for further collaboration with AT&T to deliver an end-to-end IP solution for mobile broadband,” said Alcatel-Lucent CEO Ben Verwaayen in a statement.
