Cosmote aims to make Greek islands less remote with new microwave tech

Greek operator Cosmote is turning to microwave technology as it looks to increase mobile and fixed internet access in remote areas.

The telco is deploying Nokia’s 9500 Microwave Packet Radio in a bid to increase backhaul capacity and speed. The vendor said the deployment would deliver backhaul data at speeds of up to 1GBps through full IP connectivity.

Nokia said it upgraded Cosmote’s existing legacy synchronous digital hierarchy microwave trunk-based network. By using Cosmote’s legacy infrastructure, the vendor said it was able to upgrade to the new technology with a “significant” total cost of ownership savings compared to deploying a microwave network from scratch.

The new long-haul microwave technology would improve backhaul traffic from several Aegean Islands. Nokia said the quality of network services would be improved by offering “fibre-like” connectivity and backhaul.

It cited the example of Kastellorizo, the eastmost of the Greek islands and more than 150 kilometres from the nearest point of presence on the network.

Konstantinos Koroneos, Head of the OTE/ Cosmote account at Nokia, said: “Providing a network across a spread of islands provides its own unique challenges. Nokia first demonstrated the capabilities of the 9500 MPR in a demanding live field trial, and we are pleased to work with Cosmote as it evolves its network in this commercial deployment.”

Last year Cosmote completed a trial of “super dual band” microwave with Huawei as it looked to improve transmission distances on its network.

However, the Chinese vendor appears not to be involved in this upgrade of its microwave network.