Nokia Telecommunications Inc. said it signed a 10-year supply agreement with GO Communications Corp., with the first three years calling for an estimated $200 million in base station systems for personal communications services.
GO intends to bid for PCS spectrum in the upcoming entrepreneurial auction as a small business and expects to deploy the Nokia base stations beginning in the fourth quarter of 1996. Delivery of the equipment is dependent upon GO winning licenses, Nokia said.
The equipment will allow roof-top installation in suburban areas and will contain Nokia’s new enhanced vocoder algorithm, which is in the process of being standardized, the company said.
Alexandria, Va.-based GO intends to form a nationwide alliance of PCS license holders using Global System for Mobile communication technology. GO said it intends to provide local, long-distance and mobility services in hopes of replacing the customer’s existing telephone providers.
GO previously announced a 10-year supply agreement with Northern Telecom for PCS network equipment, switching and services.
In related news, GO issued a request for proposal for the production of GSM-based Smart Cards to operate with its PCS systems.
Glenayre gains protocol use
Philips Telecom, the private mobile radio division of Dutch electronics manufacturer Philips N.V., licensed Glenayre Technologies Inc. to encode and transmit Philips’ Advanced Paging Operators Code paging format in Glenayre’s paging infrastructure products.
According to John Linton, vice president of Glenayre, APOC is backwards compatible with POCSAG technology, providing a simple migration path for existing POCSAG-based systems operating at 1,200 or 2,400 bits per second. APOC pagers on APOC systems can operate at up to 6,400 bits, the same speed as Motorola Inc.’s FLEX paging protocol.
Glenayre said it aims to support all high speed paging protocols to offer its customers more choices. The company’s equipment also is compatible with POCSAG, FLEX, ERMES (European Radio Messaging Standard) protocols.
