BARCELONA, Spain – Nortel* [NYSE/TSX: NT] and Vodafone Spain will be demonstrating mobile calls at 3.6 Megabits per second at the 3GSM World Congress 2006 in Barcelona, Spain,13 to 16 February. At these rates customers have access to higher speed broadband than the majority of European fixed broadband connections operating at 2 Megabits per second, providing truly mobile broadband connectivity while 1.8 megabits per second will initially be rolled out commercially
Nortel has upgraded Vodafone Spain’s UMTS network covering the world congress location in Barcelona to deliver live HSDPA (high speed downlink packet access) services to a select number of customers’ handsets and laptop datacards across the 3GSM world congress event. Both Vodafone Spain and Nortel will use the HSDPA network to support demonstrations for customers and organisations about the mobile services that they can expect to benefit from when the solution is rolled out.
In addition, further demonstrations of the potential of UMTS services in spare spectrum at 900MHz will be given at 3GSM to illustrate its potential use in delivering better mobile broadband coverage. Vodafone and Nortel support the authorization of 900MHz for UMTS services in various European regions, including Spain, to increase the availability of mobile broadband services. UMTS in the 900 MHz band is a cost effective way of delivering nationwide high-speed mobile coverage by providing up to 60 percent site reduction savings in rural areas as well as improved Quality of Service through enhanced in-building penetration by 25 percent in urban areas.
Corporate demonstrations of HSDPA and UMTS will use 3G datacards in laptops to show how employees can use mobile broadband to stay connected to corporate networks and benefit from secure connectivity that provides instant messaging, large file data transfer as well as new applications for the mobile workforce. Demonstrations of the consumer applications for HSDPA will involve new handsets with high quality live TV, High Definition video on demand, MP3 streaming and presence awareness amongst groups of friends.
“Vodafone has seen a huge increase in the number of 3G (UMTS) users in Spain in the last few months, with Christmas being a very busy period,” said Fergal Kelly, Director, Global Radio & Access Networks, Vodafone. “Providing a clear evolution of these services in both speed, by upgrading to HSDPA with Nortel, and coverage, through the potential use of the 900MHz spectrum in Spain is vital to highlight where our services are moving and how we are going to continue to delight our customers into 2006 and beyond.”
“As we lead the transition of HSDPA from the laboratory into live, commercial, deployments, we are working hard with operators such as Vodafone to highlight the personal and work benefits increased broadband mobile coverage can bring,” said Alain Biston, Vice-President GSM/UMTS Portfolio at Nortel. “At 3GSM World Congress, we are aiming to show how to bring true Enterprise mobility and connectivity to Europe as well as how to deliver the entertainment services of the future.”
Details of the Nortel and Vodafone HSDPA solutions will be presented during the Technology Symposium session "Optimizing the 3G Experience". Alain Biston, GSM and UMTS vice-president, Nortel will present this on February 16 at 11:00 am during the Technology Symposium in the 3GSM World Congress conference sessions.
About Vodafone
Vodafone Spain is part of Vodafone Group Plc, the world’s leading mobile communications company with a presence in 27 countries and Partner Networks in a further 31 countries, spanning 5 continents. Providing a full range of mobile telecommunications services, including voice and data communications, Vodafone currently serves more than 179 million proportionate customers worldwide. Close to 13 million Vodafone customers in Spain benefit from the experience and capabilities of a World leading company helping individuals, businesses and communities to be more connected in a mobile world.
Vodafone is a truly global organisation, recognised worldwide for its quality of service and product innovation. Vodafone’s latest global service offering, Vodafone live! opens up a world of mobile colour communication offering messages with photos and videos, as well as television, videogames, polyphonic ring tones and real music, news, e-mail, chat and location-based services. Vodafone live! is available in 23 countries and currently has over 38 million active customers worldwide.
About Nortel
Nortel is a recognized leader in delivering communications capabilities that enhance the human experience, ignite and power global commerce, and secure and protect the world’s most critical information. Serving both service provider and enterprise customers, Nortel delivers innovative technology solutions encompassing end-to-end broadband, Voice over IP, multimedia services and applications, and wireless broadband designed to help people solve the world’s greatest challenges. Nortel does business in more than 150 countries. For more information, visit Nortel on the Web at
www.nortel.com. For the latest Nortel news, visit
www.nortel.com/news.
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