Nokia, Ericsson win T-Mobile USA deals

Finnish vendor Nokia said Monday that it is one of the vendors selected by T-Mobile USA to supply 3G equipment and services for the operator’s WCDMA deployment in the US.

T-Mobile is the only US operator yet to deploy 3G due to a lack of available spectrum. But last month, the operator splashed out over $4bn at the Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum auction in order to get the frequencies needed to rollout 3G infrastructure.

Work on the new network is scheduled to begin immediately, with a majority to be completed before 2008. The company has budgeted around Eur2.1bn for the deployment of a 3G network between 2006 and 2009.

Under the agreement, Nokia is delivering its Flexi WCDMA Base Station optimised for T-Mobile’s newly acquired AWS spectrum bands. T-Mobile will be the first US operator to deploy Nokia’s HSPA capable Flexi WCDMA Base Station.

Meanwhile, on the same day it announced up to 400 job losses, Ericsson said it had also won an order to supply equipment for a turnkey WCDMA 3G network and related services from T-Mobile USA.

No financial details were given for either deal.