Summary
NSN needs access to two key carriers in the US, namely Verizon and AT&T, especially for LTE radio. Acquiring the Carrier Networks business unit of Nortel can be the ticket to enter this battle against ALU and Ericsson. Can NSN effectively integrate and rationalize Nortel product lines and not add another boat anchor to its ankle?
Analysis
Even though NSN won the IMS core business of Verizon recently, it is not a significant business opportunity, given that the bulk of the business is going to be access and LTE radio. Apparently a ticket to get some of the radio business is for NSN to acquire the CDMA business of Nortel (about 40% of Verizon Wireless' core) and evolve the radios to LTE. Verizon also owns a large number of DMS-250, DMS-100, and DMS-200 (softswitch-based) that require maintenance and upkeep and NSN will be able to provide a path forward and life to them as well 9even though probably not as critical as the CDMA network).
Nortel also owns 100% of the 3G core business of AT&T Mobility and that gives NSN access to AT&T as well where they also own DMS-100 and DMS-200s on the wireline side. Currently, NSN is not very well positioned in the IMS evolution of AT&T and is out, looking in to get some business.
The challenge remains as whether NSN is able to successfully integrate Nortel organization and product line. It has indeed struggled with the integration and rationalization of Nokia and Siemens organizations and lost some competitiveness compared to Ericsson. But, it could be a ticket to winning some critical radio business from Verizon at the end.
