Nortel Network and Vodafone plan launch in Spain
October 7, 2002
Nortel Networks and Vodafone (Spain) presented details of the rollout
program for Vodafone's nationwide network in Spain, currently one
of the largest 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) UMTS
(Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) networks in Europe,
at UMTS 2002 in Paris last week.
"Planning for the launch of third generation services in Spain,
we have been working with Nortel Networks in the deployment and
testing of our network, and to date we have accomplished substantial
milestones and delivered as planned," said Margarita Martinez of
the Vodafone (Spain) 3G Network team. She said that network coverage
has been deployed in 23 cities and 98 municipalities during the
first half of this year.
"Nortel Networks is proving that it can deliver as the first UMTS
networks going live are doing so on Nortel Networks technology,"
said Scott Wickware, UMTS product solutions director, Wireless Networks,
Nortel Networks. "3G is a new world with new rules requiring in-depth
CDMA and packet core expertise. We are working with operators to
facilitate their transition to 3G and remain the best-positioned
supplier to deploy commercial UMTS networks in the near term."
At the presentation Nortel Networks and Vodafone (Spain) discussed
the industry and market dynamics and highlighted the challenges
and milestones they faced together, including:
- Meeting license conditions - The regulatory environment in Spain
has set one of the most challenging launch programs for UMTS services
in Europe. Vodafone, with the assistance of Nortel Networks, has
met all the regulatory requirements to date. All Spanish cities
with a population in excess of 250,000 already have coverage.
- Making live calls - The companies have moved from demonstrations
to regularly carrying out live calls including voice, circuit-switched
and packet-switched data up to 384 kilobits per second across the
live network using multiple form factor terminals.
- Completing interoperability testing (IOT) - The companies have
performed IOT with infrastructure and handset suppliers.
The latest milestone was demonstration of packet- and circuit-switched
UMTS mobility to an internal audience of Vodafone and Nortel Networks
executives during a tour of the centre of Madrid. UMTS mobility
was shown using multiple voice calls and a variety of simultaneous
visual communications enabled by 3G, such as Web meetings and video
streaming via the Internet.
The Vodafone network in Spain is based on Nortel Networks access
and circuit and packet core infrastructure. Nortel Networks has
seven years of CDMA experience, which has assisted in overcoming
obstacles such as soft and softer handover requirements. As well
as working in Spain, Nortel Networks is currently deploying and
testing UMTS networks for Vodafone in Italy and Portugal. Nortel
Networks is one of the major UMTS network providers in Europe and
has recently announced that it is the world's first and only supplier
with Wireless Data Networks in service in the three advanced technologies:
GPRS, CDMA2000 and UMTS.
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