NetCom Stepping Up Pace of 3G Roll-Out

1st July , 2004

Europe : "By the end of 2005 NetCom will be able to offer 3G services over a high-speed mobile network to almost the total of the population of Norway. It is important for us to offer third generation mobile services to as many people as possible, as quickly and as cheaply as possible", says Barbara Thoralfsson, administrative director of NetCom. "We will achieve this by deploying EDGE technology - a more advanced version of today´s GSM network. This means a speed two to three times faster than ISDN."

Concurrently, NetCom will continue expanding the UMTS network. In November 2000 NetCom won a concession to build UMTS with a population coverage of 76.5 percent. This expansion is in full swing, but in order to give a larger percentage of the public access to higher-quality 3G services at an even earlier date, NetCom is to deploy EDGE as well.

"The customer is not concerned with technology but with what it can be used for and how it can be used. The areal coverage of EDGE will be considerably greater than that of UMTS by itself, and this is what is important to the user. This 3G offering will give the Norwegian public an offer that is in the forefront of development," says Thoralfsson.

"Many places in Norway will not be covered by UMTS initially. That is why we also want to use a technology that we can build into our existing mobile network," says Thoralfsson.

Better indoor coverage
"EDGE is a fully-fledged 3G technology, and among other features it will give far better indoor coverage than UMTS will provide initially. This will be an important step towards the goal of a wireless Norway with good, inexpensive telecom services for the public," Barbara Thoralfsson concludes.

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