STOCKHOLM, Sweden-Telia, the Swedish dominant mobile-phone carrier that was passed over for a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System license in Sweden earlier last month, said a technical analysis shows that it meets the Swedish National Post and Telecom Agency requirements for a UMTS license by a wide margin.
Telia had stated in its UMTS application it would build 4,100 third-generation base stations during the first years of UMTS buildout, while its competitors said they would build around 20,000 base stations. Telia said the analysis demonstrated a nationwide high-quality UMTS network could be built using only 4,100 base stations.
“This opinion is grounded on the fact that several base stations always operate together in cellular networks-they overlap each other-to provide substantially increased coverage and signal strength, which also reduces the number of base stations required in a network,” said Telia.
Telia added the technical review also showed additional benefits can be gained by carefully planning and skillfully positioning the base stations and by fully using the effective antenna height.
“In Telia’s UMTS application, the combined effect of overlapping and antenna height hasn’t been utilized to its full effect,” Telia said. “Telia’s calculation, therefore, meets the technical requirements in the application to [the Swedish regulatory agency] by a wide margin.”
The carrier did not say what entity performed the technical analysis.
