@ LTE LatAm: Public safety communications new outlet for LTE

RIO DE JANEIRO – Public safety communication networks will be targeted as an easily applicable market for LTE in the coming year, with major providers already working together in select U.S. cities, according to industry leaders speaking at Informa’s LTE Latin America conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
“In North America, LTE has been identified as the technology of the future for public service, because of its great capacity potential,” said Thomas Noren, head of Ericsson’s LTE product line.
Ericsson (ERIC) has teamed up with Motorola Solutions Inc. (MSI), which already has a strong position in the public safety communications market in the United States, to offer the technology on a wider platform across the country. The companies will start in the San Francisco Bay Area this year, Noren said.
As he highlighted key points of a successful growth strategy for LTE providers, Noren noted what he thought were important lessons learned from the industry’s launch of 3G, going so far as to call it “a disaster for the industry.”
“Nothing worked, handsets were bulky and power-hungry. So we tried to learn much from that, and basically scope the LTE offerings and focus more on quality performance, rather than a long list of features,” Noren said. “Our initial operators have said that is the right way to go. You build a strong platform, then add functionality as you go. Like building a house, the foundation … is very important.”