NSN Wins Top LTE Base-Station Vendor Spot

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) is Number One in the latest LTE base-station provider Vendor Matrix released by ABI Research, with Huawei and Alcatel-Lucent in second and third place.

When putting together these matrices, ABI Research assesses vendors on “innovation” and “implementation” across several criteria unique to each vendor matrix.

“NSN is the market leader because of its contracts and due to its high interest in early market research and development,” comments research analyst Xavier Ortiz. “It has positioned itself well without even considering the business that its acquisition of Motorola’s wireless infrastructure division will bring. Huawei, while having a slightly higher score in innovation due to its 4G experience prior to LTE, was behind NSN in the implementation categories. Alcatel-Lucent had a well-rounded score, following close behind the top two in both innovation and implementation.”

For this particular matrix, under "innovation," ABI Research says it examined the vendors’ records in early product development; their LTE R&D investment and commitment; their control of essential LTE intellectual property; and their development of “small cells.” Also included the calculation were vendors’ support for TD-LTE, their WiMAX experience, their support for multiple standards and the availability of self-organizing networks.

Regarding "implementation," ABI Research considered the following criteria: market share (RF contracts), major customer wins, the number of trials acquired, the vendor’s partnerships within the ecosystem and their end-to-end solutions.