The contracts strengthen Ericsson’s position as a global supplier of varied solutions. In Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain, three operators in each country have selected Ericsson as their supplier. Most operators have chosen WCDMA as their radio network solution, while Leap Wireless of the US has opted for CDMA2000.
Most of these operators have already been granted licenses. But Mobitel in Slovenia, an operator that has not yet been granted a license, has also chosen Ericsson as its supplier.
The 3G agreement between Ericsson and Svenska UMTS Nat AB signed on June 13th is important because this is the first UMTS-network in the world for which two operators have joined forces to build a shared 3G network. Svenska UMTS Nat AB is a company owned jointly by Telia and Tele2 in Sweden.
Solutions that enable operators to share telecom networks are nothing new for Ericsson. Two years ago Ericsson had developed solutions for sharing WCDMA systems. Today, the company offers three basic solutions that can be combined in different ways.
So far, three 3G agreements have been signed with Hutchison. The first one was with Hutchison in Australia, the second with Hi3G Sweden, and the third one with H3G Italy.
Vincenzo Novari, CEO of H3G Italy said that among the competitive advantages they obtain with the selection of Ericsson is the capability of carrying out fast deployment of the network thanks to the turnkey supply of base station sites.
He also emphasized how Ericsson will provide high-quality support and technical assistance thanks to Ericsson’s presence in Italy. These three 3G agreements with Hutchison not only demonstrate our leadership and strength in 3G but more importantly that Ericsson is a true global partner for Hutchison, one of our most valuable global customers, said Kinson Loo, Ericsson’s Managing Director for Hutchison Global Account.
