Nortel (NT) is partnering with Hitachi Ltd. to deliver gear to KDDI Corp. for its LTE 4G network in Japan.
Nortel is providing its access gateway to the LTE network, for which Hitachi is an existing key supplier. The deal marks the first such collaboration between Hitachi and Nortel.
LTE has gotten some good momentum going in recent months, as Qualcomm embraced the technology, Nortel announced a shift from WiMAX to LTE development, and Motorola announced plans to release a 700MHz LTE line in 2009.
However, as reported previously by xchange, in early October, AT&T Inc. suggested publicly that its HSxPA-based 3G networks still have a lot of life left in them, and projected LTE won’t be deployed on a commercial scale for another five years.
