TeliaSonera Signs Broadband Wireless Contract with Flash-OFDM Operator

TeliaSonera Finland and local Flash-OFDM operator, Digita have signed an agreement on the provision of broadband services in Digita's @450 broadband network. Owing to this agreement, it will soon be possible to provide nearly all people in Finland with broadband services by means of new, cost-effective wireless technology. The pilot period, started in June-August, will result in a commercial launch in December 2007.

The agreement now concluded aims at seamless cooperation between the network operator and the service provider to provide customers with the services they need.

"This is a major improvement for the people in Finland who have been beyond the reach of the broadband services offered in the fixed network. Thanks to the agreement, the Finnish information society will soon also extend to summerhouses, rural areas, the archipelago and other low population areas," says Juha-Pekka Weckström, Senior Vice President of TeliaSonera Broadband Services Finland.

During the current pilot period, it was also agreed that the network's coverage area would first be expanded into areas where it is too expensive to build a fixed network due to a low number of users.

"In the countryside, setting up a @450 base station is much more inexpensive than laying a copper cable, and in the future we will also be able to provide voice services through the base station at affordable prices," says Juha-Pekka Weckström.

Digita expands the network and sets up more base stations throughout the country Digita's wireless @450 broadband network, opened at the beginning of April, now covers wide areas in Southern Finland and areas from Oulu to Ivalo. Digita is rapidly expanding its network. The goal is that the network would have a nationwide coverage by the end of 2009.

Flarion Technologies is the principle supplier for the network which works in the 450Mhz band.

Posted to the site on 3rd September 2007