Ericsson has successfully completed the turnkey project of designing and integrating a multi-operator In-Building Solution (IBS) at the Suvarnabhumi Airport, Thailand’s new international airport. The Ericsson IBS solution enables commuters and staff members of the airport, poised to be a major transportation hub in South East Asia, to enjoy advanced communications with seamless and high-quality coverage, as well as international roaming services.

The IBS system incorporates six different technologies, including WCDMA, and GSM. This solution will also be the foundation for the airport’s in-building communications network to migrate smoothly to 3G in the future.

Ericsson was awarded the contract for the IBS solution for the new airport by the country’s top five mobile operators — Advanced Info Service (AIS), DTAC, True Move, Hutchison CAT Wireless and Thai Mobile.

As the prime integrator, Ericsson was commissioned to provide a comprehensive range of services, including program management, network design, installation, integration and testing for the combined wireless application solutions that will serve the five operators’ customers.

Wichian Mektrakarn, Executive Vice President for Operations at AIS, says: “By cooperating with Ericsson in developing the GSM mobile network at Suvarnabhumi Airport, AIS believes that our customers, tourists and visitors will benefit from a premium quality network that provides high quality services for both voice and data communications. At the same time, they will also enjoy the value-added services that AIS is offering them.”

Chutichai Napasab, CTO, Hutchison CAT Wireless, says: “We are confident that Ericsson’s In-Building Solutions will deliver smooth connections to our customers in both mobile telephony and wireless internet. This is important as we believe Suvarnabhumi Airport will be a key hub for international and domestic commuters.”

Vichaow Rakphongphairoj, Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer, True Corporation Plc, adds that “True Move is happy to work together with Ericsson along with the other mobile operators for this IBS project. This mutual appointment reflects the good cooperation between Thai mobile operators and Ericsson in providing solutions that are optimised for superior end-user experience.”

Hans O. Karlsson, Country Manager of Ericsson Thailand, says that this contract further strengthens Ericsson’s leadership in in-building communication solutions.

“This is indeed a significant milestone for Ericsson Thailand and we are honoured to have the trust of the country’s five largest mobile operators to develop and implement the best-in-class in-building communication solutions, adding that Ericsson’s global experience and strengths had been key in ensuring the success of the project, backed by a strong local presence and expertise,” he added.

Under the project, around 1,200 antennas were installed to cover the whole area of the new Suvarnabhumi Airport, including 563,000 square metres of public area and car park space. Scheduled to open late this year, the airport is expected to serve up to 45 million passengers each year and this number may double to 120 million when the airport’s second phase is completed.

The upgrade to HSDPA enables EMT to introduce its customers to a new generation of mobile services, including mobile broadband, mobile video and mobile music. Under the agreement, Ericsson has delivered commercial HSDPA hardware, software and implementation services.

Valdo Kalm, CEO of EMT, says: “We are very excited about this HSDPA upgrade, which brings even more advanced services with higher connection speed to our customers. Being the first operator in Estonia to have launched this cutting-edge technology gives us a strong position in the market and great opportunities to develop mobile services further. Following our 3G launch in Q4 last year, this is another significant step in our long-standing, successful partnership with Ericsson.”

Veiko Sepp, CEO of Ericsson Estonia, says: “We are proud to power EMT’s HSDPA launch, bringing this key technology to Estonian consumers at a very early stage. We look forward to cooperating with EMT as it brings the mobile services of the future to its customers.”

Ericsson and EMT have built a strong partnership over the last decade. Ericsson has previously been selected by EMT as sole supplier of GSM Core and Radio Network, including GPRS/EDGE, and WCDMA/3G networks.

Ericsson’s HSDPA solution will enable peak download speeds of up to 14.4 Mbps. The advanced technology offers operators more than double the system capacity and makes response times for interactive services faster. On average, users will be able to download four times faster than the current 3G connection using existing PC-cards, and 20 times faster than with a GSM/GPRS connection.

Nokia and InterDigital have resolved their contract dispute over the patent license agreement originally signed in 1999. The parties had a dispute regarding the impact to Nokia of InterDigital’s licenses with Ericsson and Sony-Ericsson.

The settlements resolve the legal disputes related to 2G products. Under the settlement agreements, Nokia obtains a fully paid-up, perpetual, irrevocable license to all of InterDigital’s current patent portfolio, and any patents InterDigital may later acquire, for purposes of making or selling 2G products, including handsets and infrastructure.

The settlements also resolve disputes related to all Nokia products up to the agreement date. “Our prior contract agreement required us to respect the settlements that Ericsson and Sony-Ericsson entered in 2003, but there was a dispute about the impact those other settlements should have on Nokia, ” said Ilkka Rahnasto, Vice President, Intellectual Property Rights, Nokia. “This case demonstrates that legal disputes are sometimes necessary in order to lower unrealistic demands”.

The USD$253 million payment required under the settlement is in line with Nokia’s earlier provisions.