Motorola inks LTE deal with Ericsson
Motorola today announced that it has entered into an alliance with Ericsson to have the Swedish equipment manufacturer provide key LTE networking gear to the Motorola Solutions business for public-safety wireless broadband systems being deployed on 700 MHz spectrum.
Motorola, which recently agreed to sell its commercial networks business to Nokia Siemens, has been speaking with multiple commercial LTE vendors about potential supplier arrangement for base stations, said Bob Schassler, Motorola’s senior vice president of worldwide radio solutions.
“As we’ve evaluated it, we just felt [Ericsson] would be a supplier we would want to have an agreement with, because — at this particular time — they were really far along in terms of their LTE development and technology,” Schassler said in an interview. “I felt personally that they really have the same level of commitment from a quality perspective that we have … for our mission-critical public-safety customers.”
By working with Ericsson, Motorola will be able to leverage the Swedish partner’s global economies of scale and developmental capabilities, which Motorola plans to integrate into public-safety broadband systems, Schassler said. With the deal, Ericsson is the first LTE supplier selected by Motorola for its next-generation public-safety solutions, including the wireless broadband network scheduled to be deployed in the San Francisco Bay Area during the next several months, Schassler said.
Motorola has designed its systems to be vendor agnostic, so the Ericsson arrangement is not an exclusive deal.
“I don’t think it’s one of many, but it’s not necessarily the only one,” Schassler said.
Ulf Ewaldsson, Ericsson’s vice president and head of radio networks, said the commercial vendor giant believe first responders will benefit from communications enabled by LTE networks.
“High-speed mobile broadband and LTE based technology provide new opportunities for the public safety sector,” Ewaldsson said in a prepared statement. “4G enables a number of new applications and video communication from the site of accident to the communication central. Improved situation awareness empowers efficient decisions, secure assets and property and may, in the end, save lives.”