TeliaSonera contracts Ericsson for network upgrade

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: With an aim to offer media-rich services to both its residential and business clients, Ericsson has been contracted by TeliaSonera for the up gradation of its broadband access network from ADSL to VDSL2.

EDA 1200 based on VDSL2 technology and related installation services will be delivered by Ericsson under the agreement.

TeliaSonera operations in Sweden, Denmark and Norway are covered in the contract according to which one million access lines based on VDSL2 technology will be supplied by Ericsson to the operator.
Deployment starts in Sweden and will run over the next 12 months.

Vodafone Spain conducts HSPA trials

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Six months trial of HSPA-based broadband services as a fixed broadband has been conducted by Spanish mobile network operator Vodafone Spain as a fixed broadband substitute in the town of San Quirze del Valles, near Barcelona.

HSPA 3G modems and Wi-Fi base stations will be provided to more than 100 households under this pilot scheme in order to use them instead of traditional ADSL-based high speed internet services.

Ascertaining the level of customer satisfaction with mobile broadband compared to traditional fixed line services, as well as studying both downlink and uplink speeds and download volumes are the two main aim of this project. Studying the level of service and capacity its mobile network may need in order to offer such services in a medium-sized city is also the reason behind these tests.

M2M Global Unit set up by Telefonica

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: In order to support its Machine to Machine business clients in all markets, Telefonica has set up a M2M Global Unit. A multinational and multidisciplinary team, dedicated exclusively to defining, implementing and supporting global clients as well as deploying these services backs this new unit.

The unit has more than 100 staffs directly reporting to the Telefonica Global Product and Services Unit. The Global M2M product of Telefonica is the first integrated end-to-end solution in the market which offers corporate clients a turnkey solution, not limited to mobile technology (SMS, GPRS or UMTS).

ADSL or complementary networks such as Zigbee, UWB, Satellite, RFID or NFC can support M2M by offering tailor-made global and local Value Added Services to any client anywhere.

A testing laboratory has also been developed by the operator for the use of its corporate clients. This will help them bring pilot projects and test new functionalities, applications and new handsets.

Telefonica fined by Spanish regulator of EUR 11 million

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Telefonica has been fined of EUR 11 million by Spanish telecommunications regulator CMT for delaying the provision of naked ADSL wholesale services. The regulations for naked DSL wholesale access were set by the regulator in March 2008. The decision has come after a series of complaints from Vodafone.

Telefonica was granted a period of 4 months from that date to start offering the service to alternative operators. Spanish operator delayed the implementation of the bitstream access service provision by one year. After several investigations, CMT found that Telefonica is “directly responsible for committing a very serious infringement” of the provisions. Accordingly, the ability of alternative operators to compete on a market dominated by Telefonica became limited.

Meanwhile, Telefonica has planned to appeal the CMT ruling.