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Monday, 19 November 2007 |
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Italian incumbent and Huawei ink innovation centre deal on back of HSPA work…
Chinese vendor Huawei Technologies Co Ltd has officially announced plans to set up a broadband wireless innovation centre in partnership with Italian incumbent Telecom Italia (TI). The Mobile Innovation Centre (MIC) will be based in
Turin, and will provide testing, roadmap development and product optimisation ‘…based on TI’s needs’. The centre’s first project involves radio technology evolution beyond High Speed Packet Access (HSPA). It is thought possible that any fruits of the collaboration in
Turin
might find its way into some of TI’s other mobile properties overseas –
Argentina,
Brazil
and
Cuba
might be in the frame. No financial terms of the MIC deal were disclosed.
The MIC initiative follows Huawei’s selection by TI - announced in July - to expand and upgrade the operator’s HSDPA networks covering Southern Italy, including cities such as
Palermo. Along with HSPA wins with Vodafone Spain and PTK Centertel (Orange Poland), the TI reference is an important feather in the Chinese company’s cap as it is seen to transition from being a supplier of cheap and cheerful mobile equipment to becoming a high tech solutions vendor capable of holding its own with – if not surpassing – the best of breed Western wireless ‘household name’ suppliers.
In fact, citing estimates from the In-Stat market research house, Huawei is now claiming to be the fastest growing supplier of UMTS/HSPA systems worldwide. The company also claims to be among the providers of the fastest HSPA implementations yet available – in the case of TI uplink speeds of 1.92Mbits/s, downlink of 7.2Mbits/s. Huawei director of European Wireless Marketing Zhu Tan argues that one of the main current issues for European UMTS operators is total cost of ownership (TCO), because no-one yet is coining in the UMTS money. He maintains that using Huawei’s new BSS results in a 33.6% reduction in TCO over a five-year period, and that the equipment delivers a reduction of CS call drops to 0.33%.
John Williamson |
