Vodafone's 3G Rollout In Spain

Nortel Networks 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 earlier this 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.