Nokia Siemens Networks has won a deal to provide Japan-based Softbank Mobile with an LTE network.

SM is aiming to launch its LTE service in Q3 this year.

The operator said it is witnessing “a major upsurge” in subscriber numbers and now has over 28 million customers.

NSN has been charged with supplying, deploying and integrating a 4G, FDD-LTE network and expanding SM’s HSPA+ network to enable new services using the recently allocated 900 MHz frequency band.

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

“NSN’s familiarity with our existing network environment offers cost savings as well as enables a faster roll-out of high-quality mobile broadband services,” commented SM’s CTO Junichi Miyakawa.

In other news, the Finland-based vendor has come to an agreement with its workers in Germany that will see 2,000 of them continue to work at the company’s Munich base.

Following the announcement last year that it was cutting thousands of jobs as part of a wide-ranging restructuring plan, a deal was struck with the IG Metall union that would see jobs saved if employees agreed to join an interim employment company.

A majority has now voted in favour of this plan in what NSN supervisory board chairman Herbert Merz said was “a good outcome for Nokia Siemens Networks and for employees”.

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