Nokia has signed deals with STC in Saudi Arabia and Bharti Airtel in India to upgrade and expand their LTE networks.
Nokia has already completed the first phase of its work with STC in the cities of Mecca and Medina, where the spike in network traffic during the Hajj and Ramadan seasons has brought the need for additional capacity into sharp relief.
The Finnish vendor said it has “dramatically” increased capacity in these centres using its 4.5G macro and small cell radio network and microwave packet radio technology. The new work has included the country’s first small cell deployments.
STC was able to handle a 600 percent jump in LTE traffic during this year’s Hajj pilgrimage, Nokia said, as a consequence of the upgrade.
The continued rollout will see STC launch new services and expand the delivery of voice-over-LTE to more subscribers, it said.
Meanwhile, Nokia is to expand Bharti Airtel’s LTE network across nine ‘circles’, or telecoms service areas, in India, including three new circles, and six the operator already serves.
The rollout uses Nokia’s radio access with single RAN technology for FDD-LTE and TD-LTE. Nokia will also expand Bharti Airtel’s 3G network in eight of the territories to modernise its legacy 2G networks.
Nokia said demand for media content on mobile is spiralling upwards in the country, accounting for around 60 percent of all data traffic, and rising.
Bharti Airtel has acquired more mobile broadband spectrum, as it seeks to meet current demand, and also set the foundation for enhanced services and applications.
The deal builds on its 3G upgrade work with Bharti Airtel last year.