BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-For the first time, Ericsson will not be the supplier to install a Telecom Personal network in Argentina, now that Alcatel has signed an agreement with the cellular operator to install a GSM/General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) network in the province of Mendoza.
The network will be up and running before the end of the year and will complement the current technology Telecom Personal has used since last year in Buenos Aires. The province of Mendoza in Argentina includes the closest city to Santiago de Chile, from which thousands of tourists flock to Mendoza on a daily basis with GSM cellular phones from Entel PCS.
Prior to this contract, Ericsson had always been the equipment provider for Telecom Personal in Argentina since its creation in 1994, having installed a national TDMA network and the GSM/GPRS network in Buenos Aires. But the relationship between the companies has deteriorated since the middle of last year, when Telecom defaulted on its debt of US$3.13 billion. Ericsson is one of its creditors.
The agreement signed between Alcatel and Telecom Personal is the first that Alcatel has signed in Argentina with a cellular operator. Movicom BellSouth has Motorola and Lucent Technologies CDMA equipment, Unif
