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    3G contracts stack up

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    The continuing battle for contracts to supply 3G infrastructure to Europe’s mobile operators has brought some relief to Motorola, which was able to announce its first UMTS contract.

    Motorola managed to oust Nortel from its position as “first round” UMTS supplier to Portuguese operator Optimus to become the sole supplier  in the north of the country.
    Optimus’ existing 2G supplier in northern Portugal is Motorola, although it chose Nortel in 2001 to provide preliminary UMTS infrastructure in the region, which has Porto as its main city. Ericsson is Optimus’ 2G supplier in the rest of the country and currently looks favourite to be 3G supplier as well.
    Neither Motorola nor Optimus was willing to release details about the size of the contract, or scope of the rollout, beyond saying that services would be available by the middle of 2004.
    Margaret Rice-Jones, corporate vice president of Motorola and general manager, GTSS EMEA, said that although the contract was Motorola’s first, Motorola’s blank score in the 3G contracts market had not been a millstone.
    “We are obviously very excited to win our first contract, but we have been saying we would be ready to deploy at the right time when our customers were ready. This proves what we have been saying for the last two years. They are now ready and we are ready to deploy with them,” she said.
    Conceding that the market had already made many first and second round contract awards she added, “And you may question why there was the need for second round contract awards.”
    Rice-Jones also intimated that Motorola has far from given up on future 3G deals. “We are currently bidding on other contracts. The technology will continue to develop. This is an evolutionary technology and that will continue over time as GSM has. It’s a long term market.”
    For its part, Optimus said that ease of integration with existing 2G equipment had been a contributory factor to the decision to go with the vendor. Rice-Jones added that Motorola 3G equipment can stack on top of a 2G base station in the same footprint. This had been especially important in Porto where space is at a premium.
    A source at Nortel, who did not want to be named, confirmed that the Optimus contract had got away from the vendor, and said the main issue had been cost.
    Elsewhere on the Iberian peninsula Siemens and Ericsson jointly notched up a goal many were hoping to score, with the announcement that they will work together on the second phase of Telefonica’s 3G rollout.
    The happier partner will be Siemens. The company is new to the operator   and was not part either of the 2G network or of the 1,100 base station rollout made in 2003.
    Telefonica has progressed through the roll call of equipment vendors in the search for suppliers. Ericsson, Nokia and Motorola were all initially retained in 2000, whilst Ericsson and Nortel were tasked with the initial rollout in 2001, with Nortel supplying the radio infrastructure and Ericsson everything else. Now, for the push to the finish, as up to 8,000 base stations are installed in a â‚-1 billion programme up to 2006, Siemens has joined the roster.
    A Siemens spokesperson was unwilling to comment on project details, but said the company was delighted to win the deal.
    Siemens is also taking UMTS into central and Eastern Europe, having been named as supplier to two T-Mobile subsidiaries — T-Mobile Czech Republic and Poland’s Polska Telefonica Cyfrowa.
    The deals are Siemens’ first and second in Eastern Europe. In the Czech Republic Siemens will deliver radio and switching equipment and in Poland will be turnkey network supplier.
    l Greek operator Telestet has launched the country’s first commercial W-CDMA network, offering services in four areas, including Athens. The network is built on RAN and core network equipment provided by Nokia after an agreement between the two parties announced in April 2003.