Ericsson has signed a three-year agreement with KPN International’s subsidiaries E-Plus Group in Germany and KPN Group Belgium in Belgium to upgrade their mobile backhaul in Germany and Belgium.
Under the contract, Ericsson will install more than 15,000 MINI-LINK transmission node links in Germany and Belgium before 2013.
Further, Ericsson will migrate the KPN and E-Plus’ Time Division Multiplex (TDM)-based transmission networks to packet-based mobile backhaul networks in order to introduce HSPA Evolution and LTE.
The network upgrade is required to ensure that the mobile networks are as efficient as possible and can meet growing demand from mobile users, said Ericsson.
Upgrading of the mobile backhaul will result in lower costs per bit, a smooth migration from TDM to packet transport and creates an opportunity to scale microwave up to gigabit capacities step-by-step.
Ericsson Region Western & Central Europe head Anders Runevad said mobile backhaul is becoming increasingly important due to the rapid increase in consumption of Internet services, which can otherwise put a lot of strain on mobile networks.
"This necessitates an upgrade of the transmission network to provide sufficient capacity for the increased traffic generated at the radio base station sites. Mobile backhaul provides the link between the core and the radio network, and we aim to perfect that link," said Runevad.
