NEC to help Pannon meet customer demand for mobile

Details: Category: Wireless Networks; 28 September 2009; 8529 views

NEC has announced that Pannon, the second largest mobile operator in Hungary and a subsidiary of Telenor, has chosen it to build a national optical transport network. The contract will see NEC providing Metro WDM equipment from Transmode to Pannon’s national network in Hungary and supplying design and operational support services...

In the last two years Pannon, Hungary’s second-largest mobile operator, has seen an increase in data traffic on its network from bandwidth-hungry mobile services and applications. Pannon has selected NEC’s optical solution, which is claimed to be optimised for data traffic and can also handle important legacy voice traffic. NEC has been a strategic supplier to Pannon for over a decade, providing various technologies including a network platform.

The new optical network across Hungary maximises the capacity of existing infrastructure and can be upgraded from coarse WDM to dense WDM working on either a single fibre or a fibre pair. This can accommodate capacity from STM-4, STM-16, up to Gigabit Ethernet channels using the iWDM solutions from NEC’s partner, Transmode.

“In a competitive marketplace, telecom operators like us must invest in the most cost-effective and reliable network infrastructure to meet increasing bandwidth demand both now and in the future,” said Gyorgy Koller, CTO of Pannon. “...NEC and Pannon have worked successfully together in the past and NEC has the ability to provide transmission for access and core over both fibre and wireless under one simplified management platform. We are very pleased with our relationship and hope it continues to thrive.”

“Today’s mobile ecosystem requires operators to respond quickly to fast-changing demands. Consumers expect better services and a “killer” experience, and operators need their networks to perform. Having a cost effective and reliable network infrastructure will also help operators stabilise and increase ARPU. We are delighted to have been chosen by Pannon to provide the technology and expertise to support its evolving network needs and pleased that our partnership with Transmode has contributed to this,” said Richard Hanscott, Vice-President, Network Solutions, NEC Europe. “We have forged an extremely successful relationship with Pannon and hope to continue this into the future.”

* Pannon was established in 1994 and it soon developed a strong presence in Hungary. By the end of Q408 Pannon had 3,731,000 active subscriptions and a market share of 33.9%. Besides voice services, Pannon’s business is increasingly dominated by mobile Internet. In addition to its EDGE network available to 99% of Hungary’s population for e-mail and browsing, Pannon is continuously developing its 3G/HSDPA network, which is currently available in 373 towns and villages across Hungary.

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