Huawei Technologies has been selected to construct Latin America’s first UMTS network by Administración Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (“ANTEL”), the leading telecom operator in Uruguay.

This network is known as the first UMTS network in Latin America, this once again consolidate Huawei’s global leading position in UMTS and HSDPA infrastructure. After one year of testing, ANTEL purchases the UMTS equipments from Huawei. Huawei provides the HSDPA-based end-to-end UMTS solution for ANTEL.

Huawei’s end-to-end UMTS is a tailor-made solution for wireless networks. It enables not only high-quality wireless service provision but also additional value-added service, by comprising HSDPA-based series NodeB, compatible mobile Softswitch core network for GSM/GPRS/3GPP R99/3GPP R4, open intelligent network and mobile data platform, uniform network management solution and operating support system. Based on its self-designed ASIC chip, HUAWEI will provide a full-performance HSDPA solution, whose data rate can peak 14.4 Mbps in downlink.

As a global leading UMTS/HSDPA supplier, Huawei has secured 31 UMTS/HSDPA commercial contracts to date, and established partnership with global leading operators including Vodafone, TelefГіnica, Deutsche Telekom AG, Orange, Etisalat, KPN, etc. Huawei’s leading and innovative mobile Softswitch and new generation Node Bs serve many operators around the world and Huawei has accumulated abundant experience through the deployment of large-scale networks. Focusing on the requirements of customers, Huawei provides innovative and customer-oriented solutions to enhance long-term value and potential growth for customers.

The South African mobile operator Vodacom has chosen Siemens to provide the mobile broadband infrastructure to bring 3G technology to Tanzania. As announced by Vodacom yesterday, Siemens will deliver and install the complete 3G network including HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) technology. The order is part of a $126 million broadband technology roll-out of Vodacom in Tanzania.

Siemens Communications was already responsible for building the 3G network for Vodacom in South Africa. Based on this success and its competitiveness in terms of pricing, availability of expertise and support with future roadmaps, Siemens has now been awarded the contract by Vodacom Tanzania.

”Offering the latest 3G technology to the Tanzanian population is of strategic significance to Vodacom and we are confident that Siemens Communications is the right technology partner of choice to roll out the required infrastructure”, said Romeo Kumalo, Managing Director for Vodacom Tanzania.

“Tanzania has taken a momentous technological leap with the announcement by Vodacom Tanzania that it will introduce 3G technology to the market. As such, this development is of considerable importance since it will allow businesses and consumers in Tanzania to get access to the services that are enabled by high speed internet access”, said Christoph Caselitz, President of Mobile Networks at Siemens Communications.

This will be the second 3G network to be set up by Siemens in Southern Africa and will be the first truly high-speed mobile broadband connectivity available in Tanzania. As accelerator for 3G, HSDPA enables subscribers to benefit from download speeds of initially 1.8 megabits per second. The mobile broadband network is an economical way of bringing the internet to users in Africa. The project will open up all the advantages of speed, latency and multimedia to business users in Tanzania, and will therefore also help to drive economic progress both in the country and in the wider East African region.

Video calls in out-of-way areas? High quality wireless Internet content downloadable from anywhere in the country?

At SK Telcom’s Board of Directors’ meeting on August 31, a decision was made to expand investment to develop the WCDMA business, a 3.5G asynchronous mobile phone service, and to deploy a nationwide. HSDPA network.

Through the Board of Directors’ meeting, SK Telecom has decided to add an additional KRW 240 billion in 2006 investments in HSDPA, and complete the expansion of the nationwide network by the first half of 2007. Consequently, SK Telecom’s total investment in HSDPA this year increases from KRW 570 billion to KRW 810. However, the Company revealed that since the additional investment of KRW 240 billion is to be procured through investment cost savings resulting from limiting existing CDMA network investments to essential areas and adjusting investment priorities, there would be no change in the total capital expenditure for 2006 of KRW 1.6 trillion.

Such a decision by SK Telecom is one step forward from the existing strategy of deploying the HSDPA networks in 84 cities by the end of October this year and expanding the market through DBDM (dual-band dual-mode; uses both 800MHz and 2GHz frequencies) handsets.

SK Telecom remarked that the DBDM handsets supporting HSDPA lacked competitiveness compared to the existing 2G handsets in terms of width, design and price, resulting in higher marketing costs, and that there were limitations in promoting the 3.5G mobile phone market. The strategy is to release SBSM (single-band single-mode; 2GHz frequency exclusive) during the first half of next year when the nationwide network is deployed in order to continue acquiring market leadership in the WCDMA market.

Also, the Company plans to expand global synergy with prominent overseas businesses such as overseas roaming, global content and solutions, and concentrate its competency so that HSDPA may acquire differentiation as a next-generation mobile communications service.

Also, with the nationwide deployment of the HSDPA network, SK Telecom plans to maximize synergy through an appropriate portfolio strategy among networks including the existing 1X, EV-DO networks. Competitive advantage will be continuously maintained in the synchronous CDMA network (800 MHz) for voice and medium / low speed data, while the SBSM handset, which is cheaper than the DBDM handset, will be used to position the asynchronous HSDPA network (2 GHz) to provide advanced data and communications services to customers.

Going forward, SK Telecom plans to establish HSDPA, a 3.5G mobile phone, into a service based on four concepts to pursue sophistication of services:
1) “Visual concept”, focusing on high quality video calls, customer-participating content and mobile game upgrade;
2) “Internet concept”, by expanding Internet direct access services and linking with fixed line content;
3) “Global concept”, centered around automatic roaming services;
4) “Convenience concept”, focused on transportation cards, mobile banking, credit card settlements.

Bang-Hyung Lee, executive vice-president and head of SK Telecom’s Business Group, remarked “In order to cope with the rapid evolution of technology and diverse convergence services, it is necessary to provide diverse services that adhere to consumer needs and product purposes, through on optimum combination of several network technologies. SK Telecom is leading the development of the 3.5G market, being the first in the world to launch HSDPA handsets, one step forward from WCDMA, in mid-May, and by completing the deployment of the nationwide network by the first half of next year, we will provide HSDPA services with no inconveniences or disconnections to satisfy our customers.”