Baikalwestcom, Nortel boost Eastern Siberia's wireless coverage

Details: Michael Schwartz; Category: Wireless Networks; 20 July 2007; 11514 views

Thanks to a new contract signed by Nortel and Baikalwestcom new parts of Siberia will enjoy access to networks, building on a co-operation now over three years old... Nortel and Baikalwestcom have announced a new contract for a wireless network extension this year that will enable Baikalwestcom both to increase its network capacity and to expand its mobile services coverage to new areas of Siberia. This contract announcement marks another milestone in a continuing three-year cooperation between Nortel and Baikalwestcom - Eastern Siberia's leading service provider.

Under the terms of the new contract for GSM wireless equipment, Baikalwestcom will increase its core network capacity to better support subscribers in the densely populated metropolitan areas of Irkutsk, Bratsk and Angarsk and to extend and improve its wireless network to deliver services across a wider area of Eastern Siberia. Baikalwestcom also intends to extend GPRS data services such as the delivery of Internet access into more rural areas across the Irkutsk region.

Baikalwestcom's coverage area will also be expanded to provide updated communication services in the large East Siberian region with its more than 50 rural towns and villages while the company intends to deliver uninterrupted coverage along all the major highways within the Irkutsk region.

During 2006, Nortel and Baikalwestcom worked together to put into commercial operation the first stage of the Baikalwestcom network extension project, which consisted of a core systems upgrade and the deployment of more than 400 Nortel base stations and GPRS-subsystems, as well as launch of EDGE technology within the Baikalwestcom coverage area. This enabled Baikalwestcom to increase the volume of its commercial services, including SMS and mobile Internet services such as music and video downloads and multimedia services.

"Significantly increasing our subscriber base, launching new services, and considerably increasing the GPRS and Internet services area of our service portfolio are the primary aims for our continuing cooperation with Nortel for 2007," said Vladimir Shapovalov, CEO, Baikalwestcom JSC. "And we need to do all this in addition to enhancing the quality and reliability of all our communications."

"Our new project with Baikalwestcom is aimed at increasing network capacity and reach and adding subscribers and - as a long-term target - making the network "broadband-ready" so that Baikalwestcom can deliver low-cost broadband services. This is improving services today and creating a path to the future, which is very important for Baikalwestcom," said Sorin Lupu, President Eastern Europe, Nortel.

Baikalwestcom is deploying over 350 Nortel GSM base stations (BTS18000) across Siberia. The company will also use Nortel software upgrades to increase the capacity of its existing three DMS switches, located in Irkutsk, Bratsk, and Angarsk.

* JSC Baikalwestcom is a mobile service provider for East Siberia, Irkutsk region. It provides CDMA 2000 1x and GSM-900/1800 mobile communications services, and is wholly owned by the largest telecoms provider in Siberia, JSC Sibirtelecom. Baikalwestcom provides its services to more than 1,500,000 subscribers, i.e., 57% of the total mobile services in the region. Since 2003, JSC Baikalwestcom has been listed among the ten largest Russian mobile service providers.

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