Thursday, February 2, 2012

NetAmerica Alliance Deploys Ericsson's LTE Home Gateway

Members of the NetAmerica Alliance are the first service providers to deploy Ericsson's powerful 4G LTE Mobile Broadband Router in the U.S.


NetAmerica Alliance, which is based in Dallas, is a group of independent carriers who have joined forces to build-out LTE service in the carriers' license coverage areas.


The new LTE device is being marketed as the UniPort Home Gateway. It serves as a multi-function gateway between the home or small business and the LTE network. As a mobile broadband router, it presents a 4G LTE wireless broadband connection to the network and offers wired Ethernet, Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n) and RJ-11 telephone interfaces toward the customer premise. It was developed by Ericsson and is provided to Alliance Members through the technology partnership announced between Ericsson and NetAmerica in 2011.


"Alliance Members have been putting the UniPort through its paces since last fall when we announced the launch of our pilot network," said Scott Donlea, EVP and Chief Operating Officer of NetAmerica. "We are confident to say it is ready for commercial service and both customers and Alliance Members have been pleased with its ease of use and powerful features."http://www.netAmericaAlliance.com

  • In January 2012, NetAlliance completed installation of its SuperCenter, which houses both the Alliance’s IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) as well as its 24/7 Network Operations Center (NOC). The SuperCenter is manned and run by NetAmerica personnel in support of Alliance Members who are deploying 4G LTE service in their respective license areas. Before the NetAmerica Alliance, independent carriers who owned wireless spectrum faced the quandary that while they needed an IMS architecture to evolve their network and a 24/7 operations center to monitor it, the capital investment, services development, and staffing costs were unaffordable for any but the largest carriers. NetAmerica Alliance made that investment, and through its business relationship with Alliance Members, shares the cost of that investment among them. In this manner,