Phone
The company will set up a facility in the Asian nation to create so-called fourth-generation wireless products, Chief Executive Carl-Henric Svanberg said in a meeting in Stockholm with South Korean President Lee Myung Bak, according to an e- mailed statement yesterday from the presidential Blue House in Seoul.
The center will develop so-called long-term evolution, or LTE, technology, Minako Nakatsuma Olofzon, a spokeswoman for the Stockholm-based company, said in a telephone interview. LTE is competing with WiMax wireless high-speed Internet technology to replace current third-generation services.
“The investment is forward-looking,” said Olofzon. “We are looking to develop LTE.”
Ericsson plans to increase the number of employees at its South Korean unit to 1,000 from 80, the presidential statement said.
LG Electronics Inc., Asias second-largest mobile-phone maker, said in December that it developed a faster wireless chip for use in mobile phones based on LTE technology. The LTE market will be bigger than that for rival WiMax products, Skott Ahn, president of LGs mobile-phone business, said at the time.
WiMax Is Rival
AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. are opting for the standard. Verizon Wireless, the biggest U.S. mobile-phone company, aims to begin offering a high-speed network in all U.S. regions by 2015 using LTE, which is scheduled to reach 30 markets by next year.
Samsung Electronics Co., the worlds second-largest mobile- phone maker, said last month it expects to increase network- equipment sales as more operators begin deploying the mobile WiMax wireless high-speed Internet service.
The Suwon, South Korea-based company has a share of about 35 percent of the mobile WiMax-equipment market, Executive Vice President Kim Woon Sub, who heads Samsungs network business, said in a June 24 interview.
“Mobile WiMax will outpace LTE over the next few years due to its head start on deployments,” researcher In-Stat said in February. “Mobile WiMax already has commercial deployments, while LTE wont be commercially available until late 2009.”
Lee completes a three-day official visit to Sweden today.