PALO ALTO, Calif.-Agilent Technologies Inc. is standing by the promise of 3G and releasing new products it believes will position carriers to deploy next-generation networks despite the current downtrodden economic climate.
“3G is not dead,” Eric McHenry, vice president and general manager of the wireless network test division at Agilent, said repeatedly during a conference call announcing the release of Agilent’s new and enhanced products.
The company’s new products are focused on assisting technicians in: maximizing returns on investment, quickening the rollout of next-generation networks, efficiently optimizing 2.5G and 3G networks and accelerating migration to next-generation networks. “It’s not just data and it’s not just voice,” said McHenry, “It’s end-to-end quality assurance.”
Agilent introduced the Agilent Base Station Test Set, which McHenry described as “one box that does it all.” The rugged, portable test set includes all of the most frequently used BTS tools, increasing technician productivity and reducing training costs, time and expenses of maintaining new base stations.
Agilent also announced enhancements to customize its Wireless Network Optimization Platform for 2.5G and 3G. The platform now includes both a UMTS mobile phone integrated with a 2.1 GHz receiver and a GSM/GPRS mobile phone integrated with an 850 MHz receiver. The phones can detect symptoms while the receivers can determine causes of problems in the network, minimizing time spent to detect and solve problems.
The Agilent Air Interface Remote Monitoring System has also been enhanced to support GSM and GPRS. The system uses remote measuring probes, located in fleet vehicles, to constantly monitor network performance.
Finally, Agilent announced its Agilent Wizard network planning and design software tool that helps service providers migrate from 2G to 2.5GF and 3G networks now supports the migration from TDMA to GSM and GPRS.
