Samsung leverages WiMax to gain from LTE / 4G

Telecom Lead America: Samsung remains a strong contender in LTE and continues to land contracts with new operators and gain market share globally. The vendor expanded into Latin America in Q1 2013 via an LTE contract from Telefonica in Chile.

Samsung’s focus remains on adding customer accounts, particularly global operators with a presence in multiple markets. Samsung is conducting LTE trials with operators around the world, but will pay particular attention to Europe as that region is primed to ramp up LTE investment.

Samsung’s WiMAX install base gives the company the opportunity to migrate its customers to TD-LTE

Samsung is the world’s largest WiMax vendor by revenue and install base, providing WiMax infrastructure to over 60 operators globally. In the United States and Middle East, Samsung has been able to win LTE contracts from its WiMax base, including Clearwire in the United States, which is leveraging Samsung to deploy TD-LTE across parts of its WiMax footprint, and Mobily in the Middle East.

WiMax’s lack of traction in most of the world will not deter operators in Southeast Asia from deploying the next iteration of the technology, dubbed WiMax 2. Still, most operators that originally deployed WiMax as their 4G technology of choice will eventually overlay TD-LTE. At the end of 2012, there were 17.1 million WiMax connections globally and 72 carriers operated WiMax networks.

Despite the lack of growth, Samsung will continue to support its WiMax install base and help migrate these carriers to TD-LTE if they choose that path. Samsung will also dedicate limited resources to WiMax 2 to provide Southeast Asian operators with an upgrade route.

Samsung is diversifying its customer base to reduce dependence on key customers like Sprint

In H2 2013, Samsung will finish deploying its portion of the $5 billion Sprint Network Vision contract, of which TBR estimates Samsung won around 20 percent of the project, with the rest going to Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent. To continue growing its LTE business, Samsung has had to look outside its core markets of Japan, South Korea and the United States for contracts and is increasingly finding success.

Armed with its Smart LTE solution, Samsung is able to rival competitors like Ericsson and Huawei in terms of technology. This has translated to wins with Telefonica Chile and Three Ireland in 2013 and Reliance in India and Three U.K. in H2 2012, positioning the company to expand its market reach and challenge incumbents in Europe and emerging markets. Samsung is also involved in a dozen LTE trials around the world, which are likely to convert to commercial contracts during 2013.

Michael Soper, Networking & Mobility Analyst, Technology Business Research

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