T-Mobile Picks NSN, Ericsson for LTE

NEW ORLEANS -- Today, T-Mobile USA, Inc. announced multi-year agreements with Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) to support T-Mobile's $4 billion 4G network evolution plan, including network modernization and deployment of long term evolution (LTE) service in 20131.

As part of the agreements, Ericsson and NSN will provide and install state of the art, Release 10 capable equipment at 37,000 cell sites across T-Mobile's 4G network, increasing signal quality and enhancing performance beginning in 2012. T-Mobile also expects to be the first carrier in North America to broadly deploy antenna integrated radios, enabling accelerated deployment and reduced site loading.

Last week, T-Mobile secured the AWS spectrum licenses from AT&T which were agreed to as part of the breakup of the proposed merger between the two companies. This new spectrum, in addition to the refarming effort, enables the launch of LTE in AWS spectrum and up to 20MHz of LTE in 75% of the top 25 markets.

"We're making great progress on our four billion dollar 4G network transformation," said Neville Ray, chief technology officer, T-Mobile USA. "With these partners on board and the AT&T AWS spectrum secured, we're on track to enhance our 4G experience this year and deliver nationwide LTE in 2013."

T-Mobile US Inc.