Date: 03/01/2011

Nokia Siemens Networks leads in LTE base station vendor ranking by ABI

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), Huawei and Alcatel-Lucent are the top three LTE base station vendors in this order as per the study by the ABI Research, where the ranking is based on both innovation and deployment.

"NSN is the market leader because of its contracts," comments research analyst Xavier Ortiz, "and due to its high interest in early market research and development. It has positioned itself well without even considering the business that its acquisition of Motorola's wireless infrastructure division will bring. Huawei, while having a slightly higher score in innovation due to its 4G experience prior to LTE, was behind NSN in the implementation categories. Alcatel Lucent had a well-rounded score, following close behind the top two in both innovation and implementation."

ABI says for this particular matrix, under "innovation," ABI Research examined the vendors' records in early product development; their LTE R&D investment and commitment; their control of essential LTE intellectual property; and their development of "small cells." Also included the calculation were vendors' support for TD-LTE, their WiMAX experience, their support for multiple standards, and the availability of self-organizing networks.