Australia
: Telstra has chosen Ericsson to provide a national 3G/WCDMA network,
based on WCDMA 850 MHz. The network will connect all of Telstra's
mobile customers to one national network, increasing coverage and
the selection of services.
Under a memorandum
of understanding signed today Ericsson has been appointed to deliver
and deploy radio access equipment, core infrastructure and services
in support of Telstra including design, installation, integration
and project management. The parties will finalise their commercial
arrangements as soon as possible.
Håkan
Eriksson ( inset above ), Chief Technology Officer for Ericsson,
said at a media and analyst briefing, that the migration to one national
network would help deliver the best possible services and performance
to Telstra customers across the country.
"With one
national network in Australia there is greater freedom for local and
international roaming, stronger community value and greater choice
of handsets and services," said Mr. Eriksson.
The national 3G
network will offer all Australians equivalent access to higher-speed
information and access to exciting, valuable new services and experiences,
such as telemedicine, distance education, public safety and entertainment
video mobile services.
The new network
will more than triple the choice of handsets for rural
customers.
WCDMA is the dominant
3G technology selected by 8 of the world's 10 largest operators. Ericsson
expects that by 2007, as much as 80 percent of all mobile subscribers
will be served by the GSM/ EDGE/WCDMA family, in which Ericsson holds
a leading position with a 35 percent market share.
The WCDMA technology
path represents a natural and fully standardized evolution of WCDMA
for Telstra, with the introduction of HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet
Access). HSDPA can provide peak data rates of up to 14 Mbit/s and
is the enabler for Mobile Broadband and Mobile TV services to become
mass-market.
The new national
network builds on the existing agreement where Ericsson is upgrading
Telstra's GSM network to 3G/WCDMA, supplying softswitch core and radio
access network equipment, including HSDPA and network rollout services.