Telecom Lead Europe: Ericsson has signed a 4G deal with Mobile Broadband Network, a joint venture of Three UK and EE.
As per the 5-year contract, Ericsson will manage operations and maintenance of the MBNL radio access network encompassing the Three UK and EE networks.
Ericsson on Monday said it will include delivery of central operations and transmission, network performance and optimization, field services, and multi-vendor spare parts management services.
EE last week announced the next phase of its 4G network roll out across the U.K. EE will roll out its double-speed 4G in ten cities within weeks. This innovation will boost headline speeds to 80Mbps, and will more than double the current average speeds to 24-30Mbps.
By the end of June, EE’s 4G network will reach over 55 percent of the UK population, and will cover 98 percent by the end of 2014. EE achieved over 500,000 customers in 7 months after launch.
To manage networks of Three UK and EE, the focus of Ericsson will be to provide managed end to end operations service that includes the network operations center, network performance and optimization, field support and maintenance, multivendor spare parts management service for its 2G and 3G networks and 4G deployments of EE and Three UK.
Graham Payne, managing director, MBNL said; “Since the formation of MBNL in 2007 we have achieved a great deal by consolidating a complex network infrastructure to deliver the best network at lowest cost.”
In May 2013, Ericsson said it would deploy small cells at Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE network this year. Small cell will enhance the capacity in Verizon’s 4G LTE network, enabling it to continue providing high quality and reliable mobile broadband service to its customers.
Ericsson will be providing its micro RRUS (Remote Radio Unit) small cells for Verizon’s 4G LTE network. The micro RRUS is easily integrated into the overall network since it works with any baseband unit part of the RBS 6000 product line.
