RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazilian telecom operator Oi announced it has tapped Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) and Ericsson as suppliers for its next LTE networks. Oi said it will deploy 2,300 radio base stations in time for the Confederations Cup next year, less than half the 4,700 radio base stations announced by Telefónica – Spanish group has chosen Ericsson and Huawei to deploy LTE. “Since all carriers will be deploying LTE at the same time, the winner will be the one that executes a better job and delivers better service for customers,” said James Meaney, Oi’s COO. “We will offer a converged service.”
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He added that Oi’s strategy has changed. If, in the past, Oi did not focus on mobile data, now Meaney said that the carrier is targeting mobile data expansion. “We look at LTE to differentiate us in the market,” he said, adding that Oi might concentrate its largest investments in LTE instead of HSPA+. “We are betting on skipping HSPA+ to go direct to LTE,” Meaney said.
However, jumping HSPA+ could be a hard step for Oi, since it must invest in an IP backbone to support LTE. When asked about that, Oi said it has started six months ago to prepare its backhaul infrastructure. “Since they did not launch HSPA+ it can make sense to go directly to LTE, but Oi will need to make a great investment in the backhaul, deploying and improving fiber optic, Ethernet and others,” Erasmo Rojas, director for Latin America and the Caribbean of 4G Americas, told RCR Wireless.
Another question to be asked is related to the coverage. Oi said it will deploy 2,300 radio base station using tower sites it already has. That does mean the carrier might not expand areas covered.
The amount to be spent with vendors contracts is based on the previously announced amount of almost U.S.$ 500 million (R$ 1 billion) to deploy transmission and access infrastructure to LTE. Oi did not announce what part of the infrastructure each vendor will supply, or which area they will be in charge of.
During the press conference, held at this week’s Futurecom event (read more here), Meaney explained that nine vendors were being evaluated and that Oi used four criteria to choose which vendors would gain the contract: deliver capacity, national manufacturing, quality and price.
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