From 2005 until 1H 2011, Ericsson has made the most approved contributions to the LTE RAN standard, according to ABI Research. Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks together had the second highest number of contributions, followed by Huawei. Companies work within standards groups to make contributions, which are approved through voting.

In 2009 alone, Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks were the leading contributors.  During 2010 and during 1H 2011, Huawei was the leading contributor.  This BI Research analysis was done for 3GPP RAN1 to 3GPP RAN3 for LTE-specific contributions.  

ABI Research further notes that, Of the top 15 contributors, nine are from Asia-Pacific, four are from Europe (Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Nokia/NSN, and Vodafone), and two are from North America (Motorola and Qualcomm). Of these nine Asia-Pacific contributors, three are based in China (CATT, Huawei, and ZTE), three in Japan (NEC, NTT DoCoMo, and Panasonic), two in South Korea (LG Electronics and Samsung), and one in Taiwan (HTC).

“It is interesting to see how some of the European and American companies have held leading positions in the shift from 3G to 4G and many Asia-Pacific companies – especially in China, Japan, and South Korea – make up a large portion of the top fifteen contributors,” says Philip Solis, research director, mobile devices.