O2 Orders Irish HSPA Upgrade

Ireland's O2 has selected Ericsson as a sole supplier for its Irish HSDPA-enabled 3G network. Ericsson will also expand and modernize O2's existing network with IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and the Mobile Softswitch solution. Under the four-year agreement, Ericsson will provide new 2G and 3G core network equipment, including mobile softswitch, and upgrade the access network with HSDPA technology. Ericsson will have the prime integrator role and will provide network deployment and systems integration services for building the network. The deployment will start immediately.

O2 Ireland expects that it will become the first Irish operator to launch a 3.6Mbps HSDPA network.

O2 has taken important steps to an all-IP network. Ericsson IMS and Mobile Softswitch will bring both flexibility and cost efficiency. O2 will be able to offer a richer user experience; with one common system for all broadband services, users will have the freedom to access any multimedia service with the most convenient device at any given moment.

Ericsson says that it has more than 50 mobile softswitch networks in full commercial service and with 21 IMS system contracts for commercial launch. Ericsson has 150 mobile softswitch contracts or trials in progress worldwide and more than 50 additional IMS trials.

Statistics from The Mobile World database notes that O2 ended the first half of this year with just under 1.6 million subscribers, giving them 36% of the market. The operator is also understood to have around 6,600 3G subscribers. "

Posted to the site on 31st August 2006