Alcatel adds firepower to LTE arms race with Cisco, Juniper and Ericsson

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Alcatel adds firepower to LTE arms race with Cisco, Juniper and Ericsson
Sat, 03/20/10 - 5:21pm Add your comment

RBC Capital Markets Managing Director - Mark Sue gives his quick overview of the brewing LTE arms race:

"Alcatel announced additions to its growing 3G and LTE portfolio to include a high capacity 7750 Service Router, the 5780 Dynamic Services Controller, the 9900 WNG while also adding enhancements to its 5620 Service Aware Manager. This end-to-end solution is currently being tested in a number of Alcatel's 43 LTE trials underway globally. The goal of Alcatel-Lucent's converged solutions is to enable carriers to leverage both their wireline and wireless networks.

Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) vs. Cisco (CSCO), Juniper Networks (JNPR) and Ericsson (ERIC) Stock Chart

Source: Yahoo! Finance

"Alcatel-Lucent's solution unveiled today complements its edge router portfolio which includes the 7750 for the multi-service edge, 7450 for metro applications and 7705 for mobile wireless backhaul. The high capacity 7750 router splits the control and data planes potentially improving carrier performance. Alcatel-Lucent's 4G mobile packet core gateway platform now supports GGSN for 2.5G and 3G as well as Serving Gateway and Packet Data Network Gateway for LTE. Verizon is actively trialing Alcatel-Lucent's LTE products, including the 7750."

Sue continued, "Networking companies have increased their focus on packet core products for wireless carriers. Last month, Cisco unveiled its ASR 5000, an end-to-end IP next generation network, a byproduct of its Starent acquisition. Competitor Juniper is also focused on providing a solution for mobile data traffic and unveiled Traffic Direct (aka "Falcon"), a software enabled feature for Juniper's MX-3D series routers. Juniper is also rolling out a new mobile technology called Media Flow, aimed to optimize the mobile network for video delivery."

Juniper Traffic Direct and Media Flow Solution

Source: Juniper Networks

Sue added, "Ericsson is another player that is targeting the wireless packet core and their respective version comes from the Redback acquisition. Currently, Ericsson's SmartEdge platform is carrying live wireless traffic at TeliaSonera, the world's first commercial LTE service in Stockholm and Oslo. Other major carriers who are committed to overall LTE equipment from Ericsson include Vodafone, France Telecom and NTT Docomo."

Sue concluded, "Alcatel will showcase its end to end wireless solution next week at CTIA in Las Vegas. We also expect many new mobile device announcements to include LTE data cards and WiMax phones. Sprint is expected to unveil the HTC Supersonic, the first commercial 4G device. Initial applications for LTE will be M2M while an initial family of LTE handsets may be available in mid 2011."

Who do you think is going to win this brewing LTE vendor arms race?