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PrintMaking rural 3G viable in Finland
Finnish market leader Elisa's planned 3G rollout and mobile broadband upgrade will deliver a superior experience to its rural customers. Nokia Siemens Networks' innovative solution will cut deployment costs by 50 percent.
While Elisa already commands half of Finland’s mobile broadband subscriptions, its 3G network covers just 20 percent of the country geographically. The company wants its latest project to extend the superior communication experience enjoyed by its urban end users to rural customers. “A market for mobile broadband services exists in rural areas, even with low population densities,” says Dr Eetu Prieur, Head of Access Networks Planning and Optimization, Elisa.
Elisa and Nokia Siemens Networks will work together to roll out the nationwide 3G coverage and upgrade Elisa’s network to High Speed Packet Access Evolution (HSPA+). Nokia Siemens Networks will supply Flexi Base Stations (BTS), high capacity RNC 2600 radio network controllers and maintenance services. The network will be configured, optimized and monitored by the NetAct™ network management system.
“We have a very long relationship,” says Prieur. “We have high expectations for the Flexi BTS and the new RNC. And with Nokia Siemens Networks as our sole vendor for this rollout, we will benefit from a technologically simpler project with fewer administrative interfaces to manage.”
Lower frequency, higher coverage
The solution uses the 900 MHz frequency band. The lower frequency increases the practical size of network cells by two or three times compared with conventional 2100 MHz systems. A pilot project by the partners has already demonstrated WCDMA successfully at 900 MHz without impairing 2G services running on the same band.
In addition to the lower frequency, Flexi BTS technology also plays an important role in controlling costs. “Flexi BTS has over 10 percent lower costs per site compared to previous generation base stations. Together with the fewer sites needed at 900 MHz, this adds up to cost savings of more than 50 percent for our rural coverage,” explains Prieur.
Looking ahead, Flexi BTS also offers cost-effective upgrades beyond HSPA+ to Long Term Evolution (LTE). With HSPA+, Elisa will offer maximum peak mobile broadband speeds of 20 to 30 Mbps per user.
“HSPA+ will be an excellent network technology and provide speeds to satisfy most users for a few years. Then we will have the option with Flexi BTS to upgrade to LTE, which will offer 100 Mbps or more. This might permit very demanding applications such as high definition TV,” concludes Prieur.