Nokia and Siemens Networks and NEC Corporation (NEC) announced, at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the co-operation in the area of WCDMA radio networks.

The co-operation consists of continued support and development for the installed baseSiemens of Siemens Networks and NEC WCDMA base stations and radio networks controllers. The agreement is a logical continuation to the successful NEC and Siemens Networks WCDMA collaboration, which has been carried out through their joint venture company Mobisphere. Mobisphere is expected to continue as a joint venture of NEC and the future Nokia Networks after the creation of Nokia Siemens Networks.

In addition to the support and development for WCDMA radio access network installed base, NEC, Nokia and Siemens Networks will cooperate in further enhancing 3G/WCDMA businesses. The companies will also continue to discuss the possible cooperation beyond 3G areas like LTE.

NEC, Nokia and Siemens Networks have agreed to form this co-operation to further strengthen their state-of-art WCDMA product offering, and to provide mobile operators with the highest quality, best performance and most cost-efficient networks. This agreement will reinforce the companies' competitive position in the WCDMA market.

The planned merger to create Nokia Siemens Networks is expected to close in the first quarter of 2007, subject to previously announced closing conditions.