Pakistan Telecom Mobile, which offers mobile service under the Ufone brand, contracted Siemens to expand its network under a $26 million deal. Siemens will set up a new GSM network for Ufone in 29 cities. Siemens said it is delivering and installing new equipment in 29 cities and is replacing existing technology with Siemens base stations in four other cities. Ufone has about 500,000 customers and a 20-percent market share, Siemens said.
Dominican Republic mobile operator Codetel commercially launched its Flash Movil CDMA2000 1x network using equipment from Lucent Technologies Inc. The network offers voice and data services at up to 144 kilobits per second data transmissions speeds. Use of compression software will allow Codetel users to reach speeds of up to 1 Megabit per second for data transmission, according to Lucent. Users can access the 1x network with 1x-enabled devices, personal digital assistants and laptops with 1x PC cards.
GSM technology supporters claimed a victory as rural cellular provider First Cellular of Southern Illinois signed a two-year, $5.5 million deal with L.M. Ericsson to overlay its existing CDMA network with GSM/GPRS technology. The agreement calls for Ericsson to deploy a complete EDGE-ready, GSM/GPRS network throughout First Cellular’s coverage area in southern Illinois, including installation, engineering, testing, program management support and optimization services. “We believe advanced services are important to rural America, and First Cellular is pleased to be working with Ericsson in delivering those services to our customers,” said Terry Addington, president and chief executive officer of First Cellular.
Motorola Inc.’s Broadband Communications Sector has joined Juniper Networks Inc.’s Infrastructure Alliance enabling the companies to enhance the interoperability between their solutions. “Juniper Networks’ advanced IP solutions combined with Motorola’s leading broadband solutions provide a powerful solution for providers looking to deliver IP-based revenue-generating services,” said Charles Dougherty, vice president and general manager of network infrastructure solutions at Motorola.
