Nokia Siemens Networks has confirmed that it has purchased Motorola’s infrastructure business for $1.2 billion, a cash deal emerging as Motorola preps for its corporate break-down, protecting its assets in phone manufacturing. For Nokia, the mobile company gains a stronger foothold in both the U.S. and Japan.

The deal will also provide NSN access to Nextel and Sprint networks in Asia, while strengthening its relationships in China as well. The aim is to become more competitive with Sweden’s L.M. Ericsson for wireless networks equipment. Nokia has had a loosening grip on devices in the U.S., with little network presence at all. The past fiscal year has shown an operating loss of 226 million euros for Nokia. Building out its infrastructure is one way in which the mobile company could take a broader approach to its growth expectations. From MarketWire,

“Based on revenue pending completion of the Motorola infrastructure transaction, Nokia Siemens Networks expects that it will become the No. 3 vendor in wireless infrastructure in the United States and the No. 1 foreign wireless vendor in Japan, and that it will strengthen its current second-place position in the global infrastructure segment.

About 7,500 employees are expected to transfer to Nokia Siemens Networks, including large research and development sites in the United States, China and India, Schaumburg, Ill.-based Motorola said.”

Stock for Nokia fell 0.2 points last week as anticipation built around the Motorola deal, while Seimens shares rose 0.2 points. Questioning the deal early on was Richard Windsor, a global technology specialist at Nomura, noting the worldwide prevalence of the GSM standards Nokia has bought into, instead of the CDMA and LTE standards NSN was previously interested in, with talks of acquiring Canada-based Nortel Networks Corp. Though with China’s Huawei having invested heavily in GSM networks as well, the two are battling to eat away at Ericsson’s dominate market share in mobile network gear and equipment.

While Motorola improves its phone manufacturing side, in part thanks to its successful Android devices, its gear and equipment aspect of the company has seen less than desirable returns this past year. Looking to increase investor interest in the aspects of Motorola that are doing well, the company has decided to break off its network branch and focus on devices. Under the deal terms, Motorola will be keeping its iDEN business and its patents for wirless network infrastructures.