Nokia Siemens wins LTE deal from Finland's Elisa

Wed Jun 2, 2010 10:50am EDT

* Deal covers first phase of network

* Elisa yet to select nation-wide supplier

* To open service commercially when more devices available

HELSINKI, June 2 (Reuters) - Finnish mobile operator Elisa (ELI1V.HE) has picked Nokia Siemens Networks to supply LTE network equipment for the first phase of its network, and said it would open the service to the public when there are more LTE devices available.

There are only a few LTE datacards on the market, and a shortage of these has slowed take-up of the service in the world's so far only LTE network, which was opened by TeliaSonera (TLSN.ST) last December.

Nokia Siemens Networks [NSN.UL] and its key rivals Ericsson (ERICb.ST) and Huawei [HWT.UL] are battling fiercely for the first orders for the next-generation LTE (Long Term Evolution) networks -- something they can use as a reference to win new orders.

Elisa said the first phase covers part of Finnish capital Helsinki and that it had yet to select a supplier for the wider roll-out.

"For a large roll-out its clear we have not made a final decision on the provider. Certainly Nokia Siemens is in a better position thanks to this deal," Timo Katajisto, director of production at Elisa, told Reuters.

So far TeliaSonera has a couple of thousand clients in Sweden and Norway.

Telecoms operators are expected to spend billions of euros on LTE networks as data traffic in their current networks has exploded due to the surge in take-up of mobile data cards.

(Reporting by Tarmo Virki; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)

((tarmo.virki@reuters.com, +358-9-680 50 235, Reuters messaging: tarmo.virki.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: NOKIASIEMENS ELISA/ Keywords: NOKIASIEMENS ELISA/ =2

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