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3Man
09-01-2004, 12:44 PM
70% UK Population Coverage for 3G

3 UK, the video mobile network, today announced that it has successfully completed the build and integration of its 5,000th radio base station. These sites mean that 3 now has over 70% population coverage for its video mobile services in the UK, as well as over 98% voice coverage through its national roaming agreement.

The 3 network is fully operational, the quality of voice and messaging services is comparable to other networks and the network leads the industry in speed and quality of data transmission.

In conjunction with its partners 3 has undertaken one of the fastest network rollouts in European telecoms history. Under contracts announced in April 2001, NEC is supplying the radio infrastructure for the southern half of the United Kingdom and Nokia is supplying the radio infrastructure for the Northern half.

The companies have implemented the Radio Access Network (RAN) and Radio Network Controller (RNC) equipment in each region respectively. The speed and scale of the deployment of the radio network is unprecedented in the mobile industry, with up to 200 base stations being installed per week.

David Cooper, CTO 3 UK said: "I am delighted to announce that we've integrated the 5,000th radio site into 3's network. This is a truly remarkable achievement as the network has been installed and optimised in just over two years, probably the fastest wireless rollout ever achieved in Europe. This coverage means that we have the capacity and the network to offer customers an unrivalled package of voice, data and video services."

Kevin Buckley, General Manager, NEC UK 3G Systems said: "This is an important milestone for NEC, Siemens and 3. The speed of implementation of 3's network in the UK is unsurpassed in Mobile communications. NEC and Siemens are proud to have delivered the radio network for the first large-scale commercial video mobile service outside of Japan."

Rajeev Suri, Vice-president and General Manager Nokia Networks said: "We are delighted to be a part of the tremendous success of 3's nationwide radio network rollout, where we are responsible for the northern half of the UK. 3G is a superior technology to existing networks, in that it can deliver faster and higher quality of media content to an ever demanding consumer. We are committed to 3's leading position in this market."