Summary
Ericsson and ALU definitely the favorite, Huawei in the game to put pricing pressure on the other vendors, NSN may be able to play, if make a run at Nortel assets!
Analysis
Ericsson has become a significant player after the LTE win of Verizon in the North American market and globally. ALU has also received some credibility, but the relationship is really from the Lucent era and is eroding gradually. Having 3G footprint is definitely a plus for both Ericsson and ALU.
As usual, Huawei is invited to play to keep all other vendors honest when in comes to pricing. Apparently AT&T has asked Huawei to open up an R&D Center in Atlanta, close to the old Cingular facilities and set up hundreds of jobs locally there. AT&T is known to be patriotic and did the same thing when they decided to build their 3G network. They required Ericsson to bring jobs to the US market.
However, NSN is not completely out of AT&T LTE deal. Not having a 3G footprint is an issue for NSN. The old Nokia was not a favorite of the old Cingular and since the Cingular management is still in charge of AT&T Mobility, the old wounds are alive and not fully healed. However, if NSN makes a play for Nortel GSM Core (which is a major burden), that may be a ticket for them to play the LTE game. There are apparently several bidders for the Nortel Carrier Networks, including Sonus.
