Telecom Lead Europe: Ericsson announced it has been selected by SmarTone, Hong Kong’s leading mobile operator, as the sole supplier for preparing that company’s IP network for LTE.
The announcement coincides with SmarTone’s activation of its 4G LTE service. With the high-speed network powered by Ericsson, SmarTone’s users will enjoy even faster downloads and uploads when using mobile Internet applications.
SmarTone’s 4G LTE services is generally available to end users from September 11, 2012.
“At SmarTone, we value innovation and creativity and we have made huge efforts in delivering an unbeatable customer experience on 4G,” said Douglas Li, CEO of SmarTone. “Together with Ericsson, we will be able to provide our customers with superior mobile broadband services and performance, based on a complete end-to-end LTE solution.”
The transition to 4G LTE will be smooth since Ericsson’s multi-standard radio base stations support 2G/3G/LTE. Users will enjoy a superior mobile broadband experience thanks to high-performing networks, as well as advanced solutions and services.
Ericsson is selected as the sole supplier of SmarTone’s LTE network, including a multi-standard radio access network underpinned by RBS 6000 base stations, and Evolved Packet Core (EPC) using SSR 8000 Smart Services Routers as an Evolved Packet Gateway (EPG).
The company will also provide network rollout, integration and support, deployment services, re-farming of the 1800MHz band and network management with Ericsson’s Operation Support System for Radio & Core (OSS-RC).
Mats H Olsson, head of Region North East Asia, Ericsson, said, “I’m delighted with SmarTone’s continued trust in us, as demonstrated by us becoming their sole supplier for 2G, 3G and LTE networks. We’re happy to facilitate them do this by extending partnership and supporting SmarTone’s launch of its territory-wide LTE network, including refarming of their 1800 MHz network. Users will benefit from an optimal LTE user experience.”
Ericsson has now signed 87 LTE/EPC contracts in 37 countries on five continents. With this contract, Ericsson maintains its leading position in LTE and mobile broadband, currently providing coverage for 305 million of the 455 million global LTE populations.
In a related announcement Chinese telecom equipment major ZTE has successfully completed interoperability testing of LTE / EPC (Evolved Packet Core) for German operator, E-Plus within the LTE trial network of E-Plus.
