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Nokia Siemens Networks looks to unload WiMax division onto NewNet Communication
WiMax expansion isn't exactly all the rage as of late, and so it comes as no surprise that Nokia Siemens Networks is shedding itself of the extraneous baggage. Following its recent whopping round of layoffs, the move is a continuation of the company's efforts to bring stability to its bottom line. NewNet Communication Technologies has agreed to bring the castoff WiMax technologies into its fold, along with approximately 300 NSN employees -- all for an undisclosed price -- in a deal that's expected to be finalized before year's end. A full press release follows the break.
Nokia Siemens Networks chooses a suitor: its own shareholders
A lot of marriages hit rough patches from time to time, and it's no different for companies and their shareholders. The last three months have likely been especially tumultuous for Nokia Siemens Networks as it played the field, conducting a review to assess potential private equity interest. In the end, however, NSN determined the grass was indeed greener on its own side. According to the press release (found after the break), it concluded that "the current shareholders are in the best position to further enhance the value of the company." Given that NSN's reported three successive quarters of year-on-year growth, the troubled relationship appears to be out of hot water for now -- we just hope the shareholders are willing to kiss and make up.
Nokia Siemens Networks looking for a date, despite some baggage
Well it appears the big dreams of the Nokia / Siemens joint-venture have gone adrift. WSJ reports the parent companies are mulling options to sell a majority stake in Nokia Siemens Networks. While both Nokia and Siemens insist they're not actively seeking suitors, leadership suggests the deal could provide $2 billion to the equipment provider that's been losing money since its founding. NSN has experienced a rough patch lately, with the news of AT&T's buyout of T-Mobile hitting particularly hard -- especially since the partnership had banked on helping T-Mo expand its HPSA+ network. While the equipment provider remains optimistic of its $7 billion contract with LightSquared, things could get tricky if the LTE start-up opts to purchase capacity from existing carriers. Even though NSN doesn't appear desperate, perhaps there's $2 billion up for grabs in some boardroom somewhere. Any offers? Anyone? Bueller?
Motorola and Huawei drop pending lawsuits, enter into new info-sharing agreement
After months of fighting on the playground, Motorola and Huawei have finally come to an agreement to settle their differences once and for all. Both parties have now dropped their pending lawsuits, with Motorola originally accusing Huawei of stealing trade secrets from its former employees, and later on Huawei getting all worried about Motorola leaking confidential information over their partnership to the rivaling Nokia Siemens Networks. The new agreement will now allow Motorola "transfer its commercial agreements with Huawei to NSN for a fee," which would then permit NSN use this info to service Motorola's networks that utilise Huawei's equipment. Aww, isn't it nice when money solves everything? Press release after the break.
Motorola temporarily banned from spilling Huawei secrets to NSN, could affect $1.2B sale
Well, that didn't take long at all: in response to Huawei's lawsuit yesterday over concerns that Motorola could tell its dirty secrets to Nokia Siemens Networks in the wake of their $1.2 billion unit sale, a judge in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has issued a temporary ruling banning Motorola from disclosing any Huawei proprietary information to NSN. Technically, we suppose that doesn't prevent the sale -- which the two companies had hoped to close in early 2011 -- from going through unabated, but in reality it probably does since there's no clean way for the transfer to happen without including information that Huawei had previously shared with Moto. We're sure this will take a little time to work itself out, but for the interim, looks like Huawei's gotten its wish.
Huawei sues Motorola over concerns it'll reveal secrets to Nokia Siemens
After tying off a $1.2 billion deal last July, Motorola and Nokia Siemens Networks -- the new owner of Moto's telecom infrastructure business -- have had a little roadblock thrown in their way courtesy of China's Huawei. Turns out Moto and Huawei had a partnership in place that involved the former reselling the latter's equipment, which necessitated some rather cozy information sharing -- and now Huawei's concerned that Motorola might be turning over some or all of that intellectual property to NSN as a part of the sale. You'd think this is the sort of thing that would've been squared away prior to inking a ten-figure deal, but Huawei says that it "had not been given assurance that Motorola would not transfer proprietary information" over to NSN, one of Huawei's fiercest rivals in the infrastructure biz... so you can kinda understand their concern. More on this as it develops.
Long Term HSPA Evolution specs come together, promise speeds of 650Mbps -- and T-Mobile USA is on board
Thought the alphabet soup of modern wireless standards was confusing enough? 1X Advanced / EV-DO Advanced, UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+, dual-carrier HSPA+, EDGE Evolution, LTE, LTE-Advanced, WiMAX, WiMAX 2... we could keep going, but we'd really rather not. Oh, but we have to, because this one could get really interesting: Nokia Siemens is touting that the specifications for Long Term HSPA Evolution have just been submitted to the 3GPP, promising theoretical speeds in excess of 650Mbps -- a number that still falls shy of the ITU's definition of a 4G standard, but easily eclipses just about anything shy of LTE-Advanced or WiMAX 2. Interestingly, T-Mobile USA is specifically mentioned in Nokia Siemens' press release as supporting the developments, a testament to the fact that the carrier is firmly committed to wringing everything it can out of legacy 3G standards before moving on -- just as they're already doing with their aggressive 21Mbps HSPA+ rollout. Considering that present-day LTE tops out somewhere in the 300Mbps to 400Mbps range, we can't say we're opposed, especially since the new technology will be backward compatible with today's HSPA networks. Yes, granted: "Long Term HSPA Evolution" is a terrible name considering that LTE already stands for Long Term Evolution (and LTHSPAE isn't the slickest acronym anyway) -- but we'll worry about naming logistics closer to launch, which is still years off. See the full press release after the break.
iOS 4.2 supports new tech to reduce network congestion, Nokia Siemens says
One of the world's top suppliers of cellular infrastructure, Nokia Siemens, has dropped some juicy knowledge today that Apple's new iOS 4.2 update supports a technology called network-controlled fast dormancy that better optimizes how the phone connects to the network. The company touts that it's a win-win -- better battery life, less unnecessary network utilization -- and also points out that Nokia implemented the technique in all of its smartphones starting earlier this year. Since network-controlled fast dormancy is a feature that benefits the network itself as much as it benefits the individual user, knocking out two power players like Nokia and Apple (over half of new smartphone sales, NSN points out) should make a big dent. Interestingly, NSN seems to have arrived at this discovery through "tests" it conducted, not by working with Apple on implementing it. Sure, we don't pretend to know all the interactions that occur between manufacturers, carriers, and suppliers during a phone's development, but it certainly seems to us that Apple would benefit by engaging infrastructure companies early and often as these baseband updates come together -- particularly as it seeks to keep a tight lid on the very congestion issues that network-controlled fast dormancy is designed to help eliminate. Either way, it's interesting to see how quick Nokia Siemens was to probe for the change this time around.
Nokia Siemens Networks doubles network capacity with DFCA
Nokia Siemens Networks seem to be onto something magical in the neverending crunch carriers face as they balance (or don't) new subscribers with network capacity. The joint venture's dreamed up something they've dubbed Dynamic Frequency Channel Allocation, a fancy name for tech that purportedly doubles a cell site's capacity with clever radio tricks. Essentially DFCA reduces the spectrum required for calls in EDGE, WCDMA, and LTE networks, freeing that extra space up for your data needs, potentially doubling capacity within the same cell site, and even helping to reduce energy consumption. The big bonus for carriers here is that this new tech is mostly software-based thereby negating the need for more hardware purchases. Magic right? Well the jury's still out on that but the whole thing sounds like it could certainly shake things up a bit for the lucky folks using Nokia Siemens hardware. Well done NSN, we love anything to do with bigger, better, faster networks.
