PARIS-Nortel Network Ltd. made two infrastructure-related announcements Thursday.
Nortel said Orange Slovensko has launched a high-data-rate business and consumer service in Slovakia based on EDGE gear from Nortel. The service is positioned as an alternative to fixed broadband Internet access solutions.
The first of the EDGE services from Orange Slovensko was launched in December 2004 for its corporate customers, followed by a mass-market consumer EDGE service in January.
Orange Slovensko’s GSM and GPRS network is based on Nortel technology and covers 99.1 percent of the population and 86.4 percent of the geography of Slovakia. The overall rollout of Nortel EDGE technology has so far covered about one-third of this existing network. Further EDGE rollout is expected to take place in stages based on market demand.
In addition, Nortel said Taiwanese telecommunications provider Sparq has deployed equipment from Nortel for an island-wide data network designed to address increasing business and consumer demand for third-generation voice and data services, as well as to support the aggregation of increasing xDSL traffic.
Sparq has implemented this network for Far EasTone (FET), one of five licensed 3G telecom operators in Taiwan. Both Sparq and FET are subsidiaries of the Far-Eastern Group.
The new network supports UMTS and uses Nortel’s Multiservice Switch portfolio for consolidation of disparate networks across a packet core. Cost reductions are also realized through aggregating xDSL traffic back into the network.
Sparq is a privately owned telecommunication company funded by the Far Eastern Group, SingTel and a consortium of top local enterprises.
