Ericsson – the world’s largest mobile equipment vendor – has revealed it will submit a bid in tomorrow’s auction for Nortel Networks’ CDMA and LTE access assets. “It’s an interesting opportunity and can create value for us,” Fredrik Hallstan, an Ericsson spokesman, told Bloomberg. He declined to say how much the Swedish company will pay for the assets, although a report in Canada’s Globe and Mail claims a US$730 million bid has already been tabled. According to other reports, Ericsson has denied that figure. “With the completed Sprint [managed services] deal, it makes Ericsson’s incentive to have the business much larger than it was earlier,” Bloomberg notes Martin Nilsson, a Stockholm-based analyst at Handelsbanken, as stating. “If they buy it for US$750 million, US$800 million, US$900 million, I still think it’s an OK deal, more than that a bit less so.”

Ericsson will be competing against arch-rival Nokia Siemens Networks for the assets, which was the first to submit a ‘stalking horse’ bid of US$650 million. Earlier this week Nortel creditor MatlinPatterson bid US$725 million. RIM is also expected by some to participate, despite its complaints about the pre-auction bidding process. Canadian vendor Nortel filed for bankruptcy protection in January after posting losses of almost US$7 billion over two years. Avaya looks likely to buy its enterprise business for US$475 million.