Nokia Siemens Networks recently made the world?s first LTE call using commercial base station and fully standard compliant software. Standard compliant LTE network products and terminals are a precondition for commercial network rollouts and for end users to benefit from a large terminal variety from different vendors. The Nokia Siemens Networks' call was made via base stations with fully compliant software to the 3GPP Rel.8 (March 2009 baseline) LTE standard, bringing LTE trials closer to the behavior of future commercial deployments.

"This call is a significant landmark in building and strengthening our entire LTE ecosystem and shows our commitment to the technology", says Marc Rouanne, head of Nokia Siemens Networks' Radio Access business unit. "We see customers adopting LTE along differing timelines and we stand ready to meet the needs of early adopters of LTE as well as operators with extended migration paths from 3G/HSPA+ to LTE," he added.

The LTE data call was conducted in Nokia Siemens Networks' R&D Centre in Ulm, Germany, with its Flexi Multiradio Base Station.

The first deployments for LTE services are foreseen for the end of 2009 with volume rollouts of commercial networks in early 2010.

"Nokia Siemens Networks is committed to driving the commercial uptake starting 2010 with an end-to-end solution that provides a future-proof, easy and cost efficient path to LTE via a software upgrade only," the company said. Already now, Nokia Siemens Networks has shipped LTE compatible Flexi Base Station hardware to over 80 operators.