Generation UMTS

21st January , 2004

Europe : Motorola’s Global Telecom Solutions Sector (GTSS) announced an agreement to build a 3G Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) network in northern Portugal.

Inset is Margaret Rice-Jones, corporate vice president of Motorola quoted below.

Motorola was awarded the three-year deal by Optimus following a successful four-month network trial. Optimus plans to deliver 3G services to northern Portugal by Q2 2004.

Motorola has extensive Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) experience with over 60 deployed networks ranging from the first commercial IS-95 network to our current CDMA 2000 1X networks. Coupled with Motorola’s network planning expertise, this means that 90 percent of the UMTS network parameters are pre-optimized, allowing an operator to rapidly deploy their network. This helps it allay its fears of a rollout being delayed for performance reasons.

Motorola’s UMTS equipment, such as the compact Horizon 3G Base station, is easy to install, enabling shorter deployment times and provides, for example, a simple migration path to HSDPA. In addition, the high performance of Motorola’s UMTS network solution offers a low drop-call rate that is comparable to high-performing GSM levels and a seamless hand-over between 2G and 3G calls, providing users with excellent quality of service.

Motorola has extensive experience deploying mobile networks in difficult terrain and integrating its solutions with legacy equipment from other vendors. A good example of this is the extensive GSM deployments carried out by Motorola in China. This experience will allow Motorola to quickly deploy its 3G UMTS network in the mountainous northern Portugal area, which includes a population of over 4 million, and to integrate it with Optimus’ existing 2G network.

Pinto Correia, chief technical officer of Optimus, said: “Motorola has been selected as our 3G supplier for several reasons: one being its ability to integrate easily with other networks. For example, during the trial, Motorola integrated its equipment with our existing UMTS core in less than a week which is very impressive. Secondly, Motorola demonstrated a very high quality of service which is critical for our customers.”

Helder dos Santos, Optimus account director, Motorola GTSS EMEA, said: “It is for me both a pleasure and a great honor to be leading this expansion of the scope of our cooperation with Optimus into yet another generation of mobile network infrastructure. I look forward to meeting the challenge that Optimus has set us and to developing the strong relationship that our two companies have nurtured over the past six years to redefine the telecoms industry going forward.”

Margaret Rice-Jones, corporate vice president of Motorola and general manager, GTSS EMEA, said: “Winning this 3G UMTS Optimus contract is a major landmark for Motorola and reflects our growing success and commitment in the European market for all types of mobile infrastructure. Optimus’ choice of Motorola’s equipment is testimony to the technical strength of our UMTS solution and of our strong relationship with the company. We look forward to working with Optimus in the future to help deliver innovative 3G services.”

António Casanova, chief executive officer, Optimus, said: “We are pleased to be making the announcement today with Motorola as we continue our efforts to deliver leading-edge 3G services to the people of Portugal. By working together we will build a cost effective and high quality solution to provide the future means of communication for this country.”

Home ProZone Subscribe To Newsletter 3G Forum