Cisco And NEC Partner To Boost LTE Sales

Cisco and NEC have agreed a cross-selling pact which could raise the profile of both in major LTE contracts.

Focal Points:

• Despite its dominant position in carrier routers, Cisco has not achieved the end-to-end offering that many large cellcos still prefer, despite acquiring Starent for the packet fore, and flirtations with the access network such as its Navini acquisition. Meanwhile, its partner NEC is seeking a significant comeback in LTE, having failed in the 3G race, and is relying heavily on its advanced approach to small cell networks to gain it a presence outside its native Japan.
• The two companies will jointly sell their products – Cisco‘s ASR 5000 mobile packet core switch platform and NEC‘s 4G base stations. They have verified interoperability between the products after extensive testing, the companies said.
• NEC‘s flagship customer is Japan‘s NTT DoCoMo, and in participating in that cellco‘s early and advanced LTE implementation, the vendor says it has acquired significant technical and market knowledge. It is taking part in trials with various operators including Telefonica‘s huge multi-country LTE tests and with SingTel group. It will now be able to offer an integrated system, which includes the packet core technology that Cisco acquired with Starent two years ago.
• Most RAN suppliers have their own packet cores, although there has been a trend – largely kickstarted by Starent – for operators to buy the elements separately, especially as the core becomes far more mission critical. It is responsible for many of the activities, which help to make a network efficient and profitable, such as traffic management and deep packet inspection.

NEC, of course, can also offer its hugely powerful backhaul range as part of an integrated contract. It will need to watch out for NEC though. The Japanese firm is looking to use its experience as an end-to-end supplier in its native country – and its huge backhaul business everywhere to establish its credentials for a new push into international infrastructure markets, notably Europe.