Telstra has named Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia Siemens to work on LTE trials from May.
The decision is a snub to ZTE, which has worked closely with Telstra-controlled CSL in Hong Kong, and a major gain for Huawei, which has yet to win a major contract in Australia.
Ericsson is Telstra’s long-running supplier and supplied the gear for its 800MHz NextG network.
The trial, up to six months long, will test LTE coverage, performance and signal propagation.
Huawei said it would reach peak downlink speeds of up to 150Mbps.
Huawei will provide an “entire end-to-end LTE/SAE solution,” including macro base stations, distributed base stations and SAE core network.
NSN said it would provide “RAN and core” for the trial in the state of Victoria.
Telstra said yesterday that the “results of the Australian tests will be complemented by the experience of Telstra's subsidiary company CSL in Hong Kong, where ZTE equipment is being put through its paces.”
“The collective information gathered through these trials will be used to guide planning and design of Telstra's future Next G network evolution,” the firm said.
Research house Ovum does not expect a “significant impact” from LTE to occur in Australia until 2014.
“LTE will be deployed predominately in urban areas using the 2.5GHz and potentially other bands long prior to 2014,” said Ovum.
“However, the big impact will come once digital dividend spectrum becomes available and national LTE rollouts commence, of a then mature LTE technology.”
By end 2014, LTE will represent 10% of mobile connections in Australia, forecasts Ovum.