Nokia Siemens stresses LTE commitment

Failed bid for Nortel assets not a setback.

Nokia Siemens Networks remains dedicated to the development of mobile infrastructure, despite having lost out to Ericsson in snapping up Nortel's CDMA and Long Term Evolution (LTE) assets.

"Our final offer for Nortel's assets represented a fair price, and we did not enter this process with a win-at-any-cost mindset," said Bosco Novak, chief markets operations officer at Nokia Siemens.

"Ours was an opportunistic bid aimed at supporting the great progress we've made in North America in the past 18 months, and we are very confident that momentum will continue to grow."

Nokia Siemens is currently focusing its efforts on the North American market, and has several new projects underway in Canada and the US.

As well as developing access products for the edge of the network, Nokia Siemens is investing in the backhaul optical networks required as demand for bandwidth from cable and wireless operators continues to grow.

The harsh economic climate has affected the rollout of next-generation mobile data services, but competition within the industry remains fierce across all regions, particularly Asia where adoption is high.

"With our powerful R&D capacity, strong portfolio and services capabilities and global scale and reach, Nokia Siemens is positioned for long-term success as one of the winners in a wireless industry that is rapidly consolidating around three vendors," added Mika Vehvilainen, chief operating officer at Nokia Siemens.

"Our LTE platform is winning a growing number of customers across the world, and we are well positioned to deliver the benefits of next-generation wireless technology to customers in North America and elsewhere."

LTE is expected to trump WiMax in all but a few niche markets, but development of the latter platform is still going ahead.