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Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, NEC, NextWave Wireless, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks and Sony Ericsson this week announced an agreement to limit royalty rates on patents related to Long Term Evolution (LTE).

"The companies involved have pledged to avoid the bitter patent and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) rows which characterized past mobile technologies," explains eFluxMedia's Sarah Vasques.

"Disputes among network suppliers over patent-royalty fees have roiled the industry for years and sometimes put wireless phone companies in a difficult spot," writes the WSJ's Jeffry Bartash. "They have sometimes delayed equipment purchases to avoid becoming caught in the middle."

"The companies have committed to keeping royalty levels for essential LTE patents in handsets below 10 percent of the sale price, and have agreed a maximum royalty in LTE-enabled notebooks must stay below $10," writes AfterDawn's James Delahunty.

But as Ars Technica's Eric Bangeman points out, not everyone is on board at this point. "Qualcomm hasn't signed on, and the litigious chipmaker is known to have some significant IP related to 4G," he notes...

More here from GigaOM ... more here from Tech Digest ... more here from TechRadar ... more here from PCW ... more here from TelecomTV ... more here from Reuters ... more here from Telappliant ... more here from Crave ... more here from dBTechno ... more here from Techworld ... more here from TMCnet ... more here from eWeek ... more here from BBC News ... more here from InformationWeek ... and the press release is here.