With partner Ericsson, initial Vodafone trial installed in Southwark
Vodafone and Ericsson are currently deploying portable mini base station radio units across London in an attempt to boost LTE coverage in the city. The base stations are said to be half the size and weight of a standard radio base station.
Vodafone and Ericsson installed the first portable base station in Southwark, and plan to test performance in the next month before rolling out the system across the city.
“We continue to look at new and innovative ways of providing improved mobile coverage in order to meet our customers’ soaring demand for mobile data and video while minimizing disruption to the general public and improving the aesthetics of the surrounding area,” said Vodafone CTO Jorge Fernandes. “We are delighted to be partnering with Ericsson, one of our key network suppliers, on this project and look forward to further engaging with local councils and government to look at ways of reducing red tape around site planning for mobile mast installations.”
Vodafone and Ericsson are also working on three-band carrier aggregation, combining the telco’s 800 MHz, 1800 MHz, and 2.6 GHz spectrum to improve download speeds. In a recent trial at select sites in London, the companies claimed to have achieved maximum throughput of 240 megabits per second. Vodafone said Ericsson’s mini radio units support three-band carrier aggregation.
Orange reportedly in talks to acquire certain Millicom assets in Africa
In other EMEA news, French telecom group Orange is holding talks with Luxembourg-based telco Millicom to explore the potential acquisition of certain operations in the African market, according to a report by Bloomberg.
Orange is interested in Millicom’s operations in Senegal, Ghana and Chad, according to two sources. The sources indicated Orange is looking for new opportunities in East Africa.
Earlier this year, Orange acquired Millicom’s Tigo business in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for $160 million.
