Ericsson acquires Airvana's EVDO business

Swedish infrastructure vendor Ericsson has acquired the EV-DO (Enhanced Voice-Data Optimized) business of small cell specialist Airvana Network Solutions. The deal sees Massachusetts based Airvana, which has traditionally been a supplier of EV-DO software to Ericsson, transfer its 38 EV-DO specialist staff to the vendor.

As a result of the deal, Ericsson and Airvana have announced that they will jointly seek dismissal of the lawsuit filed by Airvana in February 2012. The US firm had begun a $330m intellectual property dispute against Ericsson in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, accusing the Swedish firm of developing software based on Airvana’s trade secrets and using it to operate wireless network equipment to avoid paying license fees.

Acccording to Paul Challoner, VP and head of CDMA Radio product at Ericsson, EVDO software is still an important part of the CDMA ecosystem.

“Ericsson is committed to CDMA and to its CDMA customers,” he said.

“We recognise that CDMA will continue to be an important technology in the operators’ networks. We continue our vertical integration strategy for key CDMA products and further strengthen our control over product portfolio, ensuring long-term support to our customers with the ability to better respond to their requirements.”