Nokia Siemens Networks hopes its new lab in Dallas will further accelerate the development of Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless technology in North America.
It’s a next-gen technology lab intended to ensure that the unique requirements of North American operators are fully incorporated into the company’s LTE developments.
The R&D center will support development, verification and interoperability activities, from network infrastructure to mobile devices. This will be the hub for all LTE trials in the U.S. and Canada with inaugural trials in 1Q09. Additionally, the lab will foster local product development to address specific North America requirements, and will drive LTE ecosystem development to accelerate service adoption when LTE networks are deployed.
“The new lab will further enable us to capitalize on the exceptional market opportunities for next generation networks in North America and the growing expectations of consumers and enterprises for bandwidth hungry mobile applications,” said Sue Spradley, president, North America, Nokia Siemens Networks. “We look forward to continuing to drive LTE innovation, ecosystem development, and momentum with North American carriers to advance the U.S. and Canada’s communications position in the global landscape.”
Juha Lappalainen, previously CTO of Nokia Siemens Networks North American operations, has been named head of LTE for North America and will oversee the lab’s development as well as domestic R&D advancements.
The Next Gen Technology Lab will be the newest addition to the company’s presence of 2200 employees in more than 12 cities across North America, and will complement the region’s activities in R&D, technology interoperability, professional services, strategy, sales, marketing and corporate functions.
Long Term Evolution (LTE), the next generation of mobile networks like GSM, WCDMA and CDMA, promises delivery of new multimedia intensive and rich call applications by improving data speeds, reducing latency and building on a scalable flat network design. It is the latest mobile network technology, currently undergoing standardization by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a global standards organization. In North America, major operators have already announced plans to migrate their networks to LTE in the future, said the company.
