Optus picks Nokia Siemens to upgrade mobile net core to all IP operation

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 20 April 2011 09:57

IT Industry - Deals

Optus has selected Nokia Siemens Networks to upgrade the core of its mobile network to the Evolved Packet Core.

The evolved packet core (EPC) is an essential pre-requisite to offering LTE services. It is also key to enabling the introduction of new business models, such as partnering/revenue sharing with third-party content and application providers.

Günther Ottendorfer, the newly appointed managing director of Optus Networks, said: 'This new agreement with Nokia Siemens Networks on using its mobile packet core solution will give Optus the flexibility to provide more bandwidth to our customers as required, especially as online applications and mobile working has become the norm.'

Nokia Siemens will also supply it Flexi NG GGSN (GSM gateway serving node) platform, its Charge@once Mediate product and professional services including network planning, implementation and support.

Nokia Siemens says its Felxi NG GGSN will "provide a significant uplift in capacity, thereby, providing plenty of headroom to Optus for new product launches." Charge@once "will allow Optus to introduce new services without making any major changes to its charging and billing systems "

Flexi NG is part of Nokia Siemens' Open Core product suite, announced in February and billed as "a suite of products based on off-the-shelf ATCA hardware [that] delivers higher processing capacity and can ensure a seamless evolution to all-IP core networks with minimal footprint and power requirements."

In February, Telstra awarded Ericsson a contract to upgrade its radio access network to LTE and its mobile core network to EPC. That announcement came just days after Ericsson had unveiled its fist router designed for the EPC.  And in July 2010 VHA chose Ericsson to upgrade the Vodafone network to EPC.