Claro, the Brazilian operator owned by Carlos Slim’s América Móvil (AMX), announced that it is updating its radio access network to be all Internet Protocol based by the end of the year. This strategy prepares Claro for the future launch of 4G services. Claro currently has 73% of its 3G sites based on this technology.
Updating the RAN is part of R$ 3.5 billion (US $2.2 billion) in investments that Claro announced it’s doing in Brazil. If considering all of America Móvil’s assets in Brazil – Claro, Embratel and Net – the total investment in network expansion and the conquest of new markets will be R$ 10 billion (US $6.2 billion).
In a statement, Claro’s platform and network director Márcio Nunes explained that the carrier is going to have an all-IP access network, with more than 8,500 installed routers, primarily using fiber optics for transport, totaling more than 89,000 kilometers of fiber.
Claro quoted a Heavy Reading survey that shows that by the end of June 2011, only 55% of all 3G sites in major markets had IP RANs. The expectation is to increase this percentage to 85% until the end of 2015.
L.M. Ericsson (ERIC) and Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) are Claro’s suppliers of next-generation solution for network IP RAN.
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