VHA to replace former Vodafone network with Huawei gear

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 22 February 2011 10:14

IT Industry - Deals

VHA has snubbed incumbent suppliers Nokia Siemens and Ericsson, in favour of Huawei and will replace all 8000 base stations in its networks with Huawei base stations.

VHA will also install Huawei radio network controllers in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. The entire upgrade will be completed in 18 months.

Huawei will supply its SingleRAN base station that is able to support both 2G and 3G technologies and, according to Huawei, can support LTE, "at the flick of a switch."

Vodafone trialled LTE with Huawei equipment last year but remains non-committal on rollout plans. "The trials of the technology we ran last year were very successful, achieving speeds of up to 73Mbps '¦.As devices become available we will be able to rollout LTE right across both of our 3G networks," the company said.

"The new network equipment that is being installed is based on the maximum theoretical standards of 42MBps, Vodafone said. Vodafone is also working with Huawei to prepare the Vodafone network for an upgrade to '¦ LTE - the next generation of mobile technology capable of delivering maximum theoretical download speeds of up to 150Mbps."

A Huawei spokesman told iTWire that the contract would see Huawei double its Australian workforce from 300 to 600 for the duration of the contract, and hire some 200 contractors. The value of the contract is not being disclosed.

Ericsson was the original supplier of the Vodafone network. In May 2010 VHA awarded Nokia Siemens a seven year contract to manage its networks, and a contract to supply equipment to upgrade VHA's core network.

A VHA spokeswoman told ExchangeDaily at the time that RFP responses for the radio networks were still being evaluated and there was no timeframe for an announcement.

Nokia Siemens had a long-standing relationship with Vodafone as its network equipment supplier and the manager of its network while Hutchison's network was supplied and managed by Ericsson. Ericsson was also chosen by Vodafone to upgrade its regional and rural network to 3G, a project it completed in 2009.