Who's in AT&T's LTE Core?

11:05 AM -- Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) and Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC) have landed Long Term Evolution (LTE) radio access contracts at AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T). So, one of the many next questions is, who is supplying the core network elements -- that is, the Evolved Packet Core (EPC)? (See AT&T Picks AlcaLu, Ericsson for LTE.)

One part of the EPC will come from Ericsson, which is supplying AT&T with, not only LTE radio access equipment, but also a mobility management element (MME) and operating support systems, according to an Ericsson spokeswoman.

The MME, which controls mobility signaling, is one of the four network elements that make up the EPC -- the MME, Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF), the Serving Gateway, and the Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway. (See Juniper Challenges Cisco in the Mobile Core, LTE Core Action Heats Up, and Core Network Challenges LTE Vendors.)

As for the other EPC elements, AT&T isn't saying anything about those suppliers today:

"We announced today Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson as the LTE equipment providers for our Radio Access Network Domain, and we will continue to provide further information on our LTE plans as it becomes available," according to an AT&T spokeswoman.

— Michelle Donegan, European Editor, Unstrung