US operator AT&T today revealed Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson as its suppliers of radio access kit for its future LTE network, mirroring the choice of rival Verizon. “The selection of the two suppliers paves the way for AT&T’s planned field trials of LTE technology later this year, with commercial deployment scheduled to begin in 2011,” noted the operator in a statement. Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed. Both vendors currently supply AT&T’s 3G HSPA network, although the operator was keen to stress that it tested equipment from “multiple suppliers” before deciding on its existing partners.

AT&T will trail Verizon in deploying LTE as its larger CDMA rival plans to begin the switch to LTE this year, but AT&T took a number of subtle swipes at Verizon in its statement today. It claimed its own rollout schedule “aligns with industry expectations for development of LTE technology and widespread availability of equipment and compatible LTE mobile devices.” Moreover, it added that “as part of the supplier agreements, 3G equipment delivered to AT&T by the suppliers starting this year will be easily convertible to LTE, enabling A&T to upgrade existing equipment and software rather than install entirely new equipment in many cases as it deploys the next-generation technology.” John Stankey, president and CEO of AT&T Operations, claimed that “AT&T has a key advantage in that LTE is an evolution of the existing GSM family of technologies that powers our network and the vast majority of the world’s global wireless infrastructure today. As some competitors move away from their existing investment in niche 3G platforms, we are able to efficiently and quickly move toward LTE while enhancing our existing 3G performance and providing access to a strong ecosystem of customer devices.”