During its swan song, Canadian vendor Nortel has teamed up with Korean manufacturer LG to demonstrate a  3GPP standards compliant data handover between a LTE network and a CDMA network.

The demo, which took place at Nortel’s R&D centre in Ottawa, Canada,  showed that activities like video downloads, web surfing, and VoIP calls can be maintained when a mobile data user moves between LTE and CDMA coverage zones.

The vendors said that initial LTE networks will co-exist with existing CDMA networks for some time an inter-technology handover allows mobile users to move between a LTE and a CDMA network without losing their data connectivity. This means that operators can run these networks concurrently without impacting services.
Major deployments of LTE are expected as early as 2010, with big name CDMA players such as Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel and KDDI having already committed to the technology.

“Nortel innovation will help CDMA operators enjoy a smooth migration to LTE,” said Larry Murat, vice president of LTE R&D, Nortel. “Although CDMA networks will remain the primary networks for many years to come, LTE will become a key piece of the networking puzzle as early as next year.”

Nortel, which is in the midst of a fire sale of its assets, is expected to offload its 50 per cent stake in joint venture LG Nortel this year.  The Canadian firm’s CDMA business and LTE access assets are also the subject of an asset sale agreement with Ericsson, set to close in the autumn of 2009.