Leading Analyst Firm names Ericsson a leader in LTE Magic Quadrant

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) is placed in the "Leaders" quadrant in Gartner's latest Magic Quadrant report for LTE. Gartner, a worldwide IT research and advisory firm, evaluated end-to-end vendors of LTE equipment based on their ability to execute and completeness of vision in the LTE market.

Network quality and performance is becoming a clear competitive advantage, as usage and traffic patterns change. With the rapid uptake of smartphones mobile data traffic is expected to grow 15 times by 2017. Operators are challenged to successfully deliver a consistently good user experience for the services consumed on smartphones, tablets and other new devices. This increasing focus on network performance comes from the early LTE markets such as the US and Korea and from other markets with high smartphone penetration. Today around 50 percent of smartphones worldwide are connected to an Ericsson network.

The ability to deliver high-performance networks is not only the result of introducing new technology but the efficient combination of legacy equipment and state-of-the-art 3GPP-based solutions. Ericsson was first out with LTE and at year end 2011 held an estimated 60 percent market share by volume, providing the necessary experience and scale to support operators in the next phase LTE networks build.

"We have received a lot of valuable and positive feedback on the performance of our networks and we are proud to have our leadership recognized in the Leaders quadrant of Gartner's Magic Quadrant for LTE," Thomas Noren, Vice President, head of Product Area Radio at Ericsson says. “Ericsson is committed to delivering high-performance networks to our customers and we are focusing our R&D investments to ensure best use of their limited spectrum."

To date, seven of the top 10 operators ranked by revenue 2010 have selected LTE vendors for their network. Ericsson has signed commercial contracts with six of these seven operators.

Ericsson is the prime driver of open standards and has had the most significant impact on the LTE specifications released to date. Ericsson expects to hold 25 percent of all essential patents for LTE, making it the largest patent holder in the industry. Ericsson is the industry leader in managed services managing networks that serve over 900 million subscribers and provides support to networks with more than 2.5 billion subscribers.

In addition to the LTE Network Infrastructure Magic Quadrant, Ericsson is included in the "Leaders" quadrant of Softswitch Architecture and FTTH Gartner Magic Quadrants.*