NSN and Ericsson win new LTE customers in Asia

European network vendors Ericsson and Nokia Solutions and Networks have both announced new LTE customers in key Asian markets. Sweden’s Ericsson has won a supply deal with Japan’s KDDI, while NSN has a contract with China Telecom.

Ericsson will supply second-placed Japanese operator KDDI with an LTE access network and Evolved Packet Core. While this is the firm’s first radio access deal with KDDI, it supplied the operator with an IMS system earlier this year. Ericsson is also an LTE supplier to third-placed Japanese operator Softbank. Jan Signell, head of the north-east Asia region for Ericsson said the firm had been “collaborating closely with KDDI to demonstrate the value of our… LTE solution.”

KDDI had 39.04 million customers at the end of Q3 this year, according to data from Informa’s WCIS Plus, ahead of Softbank on 34.07 million and behind NTT DoCoMo on 61.77 million. KDDI’s existing LTE network has 7.15 million subscribers.

The LTE Asia conference is taking place on the 15^th-17^th September 2014 at the Suntec, Singapore. Click here to download a brochure for the event.

Meanwhile Finland’s Nokia Solutions and Networks described its LTE network deal with third-placed China Telecom as a “breakthrough” for its mobile broadband business. “NSN has steadily invested in its LTE research and development presence in China,” said Markus Borchert, president of Greater China Region at NSN. “This makes us an ideal partner for guaranteeing high network quality and expertise as we support China Telecom … with its 4G launch.”

China Telecom had 181.23 million customers at the end of Q3 this year, behind China Unicom on 272.81 million and China Mobile on 755.17 million.

Neither vendor disclosed the value of their deals.