Summary
1. Ericsson has been making significant penetration in both the US public wireline and wireless markets with its equipment. 2. Nokia Siemens Networks has been far less successful in either sector. 3. In purchasing a large installed base of gear from Nortel, it would become a major player in the States overnight.
Analysis
Control of the CDMA business would give Nokia Siemens Networks extensive footprints at Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, and the rest of the world. In addition, NSN would gain Nortel’s big base of VoIP equipment. However, the TDM portion of the business NSN is going after is a little less clear. With Genband apparently interested in “digital switches,” there is the implication that it is seeking the DMS product line. Perhaps NSN has come to the conclusion that ownership of Nortel’s VoIP business is sufficient. This equipment would have evolutionary ties from the digital CO base anyway. And so the actual ownership of the DMS footprint may have been deemed unnecessary by NSN.
But management over Nortel’s 3G base should give NSN a better shot at getting more business with Verizon Wireless. NSN may even now be in a position to displace Alcatel-Lucent as the second major vendor for overall LTE sales to the service provider.
