Nokia Siemens Networks has signed an agreement with Airtel to expand, deploy and manage the telco’s 2G and 3G networks in seven African countries, Madagascar, Malawi, Congo Brazzaville, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Airtel operates in 19 African countries. Under the agreement, Nokia Siemens Networks will manage end-to-end network operations, including planning, designing and implementing the 2G and 3G networks for Airtel. The vendor will provide its energy-efficient Flexi Multiradio Base Stations to expand network coverage to under-served areas, including smaller towns and villages in the seven countries.
Nokia Siemens Networks’ Flexi Multiradio Base Station opens a smooth evolution path from GSM and 3G to LTE-Advanced with just a software upgrade. The software definable Flexi Multiradio Base Station enables to run GSM/EDGE, WCDMA/HSPA/HSPA+ LTE and LTE- Advanced concurrently in a single unit. With the introduction of the Flexi Multiradio Base Station into the market, a 70% improvement in power consumption has been achieved compared to a cabinet-based site, used earlier.
Nokia Siemens Networks will use its FlexiHybrid microwave radio to address growing data traffic and provide the platform for a cost-effective transition to 3G, and potentially 4G networks in the future. The company will also provide its NetAct network management system for effective network monitoring and management.
Something you should note is that we are shifting back to wireless networks, as Fiber networks have proved to be very unreliable in the country due to vandalism. hence we will rely on microwave, which we thought we had passed.
