Nokia Siemens Networks has started to provide its customers with Long Term Evolution (LTE) compatible Flexi Multimode Base Station hardware which offers a smooth path to the future ultra-high speed wireless broadband. Only a software upgrade needed to achieve full LTE functionality, says the company.
By the end of 2008, Nokia Siemens Networks will be delivering the new LTE-ready hardware to more than 10 major mobile operators in Europe, Asia and North America, reinforcing its position as the frontrunner in LTE with a scalable, flat architecture. Nokia Siemens Networks' shipments of fully LTE-compatible Flexi Base Station hardware indicate a major milestone on the journey towards LTE technology which is the next step in mobile network evolution for both the GSM/WCDMA/HSPA and CDMA operators. LTE networks will transform the user experience, taking mobile broadband services to a new level where browsing, email, video sharing, music downloads and many more applications will be immediately available, without any noticeable delay. This will be enabled by faster response times and improved throughput, with latency – the responsiveness of the network – down to 10-20 ms and peak rates of up to 173/58 Mbps (downlink/uplink, 20MHz, MIMO).
By evolving its Flexi Multimode Base Station hardware to support LTE, Nokia Siemens Networks provides a future-proof, easy and cost-efficient path to LTE via a software upgrade. This capability of Nokia Siemens Networks Flexi Base Stations is unmatched in the industry. The software upgrade will be available from the second half of 2009.
Matthias Reiss, head of LTE Radio of Nokia Siemens Networks, said: "LTE promises an exciting and radical transformation of the wireless experience with rich and fast multimedia services of incredible quality. And with the start of this LTE-compatible hardware, Nokia Siemens Networks promises its customers the smoothest migration to LTE possible. With only a software upgrade needed, the evolution to LTE radio network cannot be easier than this."