Alcatel-Lucent said Orange Romania will be able to provide enhanced 4G services to its subscribers, after the infrastructure provider won a contract to upgrade the operator's long-haul microwave backhaul transport network.
The vendor said Orange Romania is increasing the capacity of its 4G network to cope with growing demand for data services. The upgrade will enable Orange Romania to improve the performance of its voice and data services, and so provide an overall improvement in user experience, Alcatel-Lucent stated.
Ionut Dobrescu, head of infrastructure expansion at Orange Romania, said Alcatel-Lucent's expertise in microwave transport was a key factor in the upgrade contract. The operator is "committed to evolving our network to provide the highest capacity and quality to our customers," he explained.
Alcatel-Lucent said it will deploy its 9500 Microwave Packet Radio (MPR) technology, which offers a direct upgrade on the vendor's existing microwave transport links on Orange Romania's network. The vendor noted that mechanical compatibility between its legacy equipment and new kit enables it to reduce the cost of ownership by reusing passive equipment.
Sergiu Secareanu, key account manager for Orange Romania at Alcatel-Lucent, said the 9500 MPR technology "can help service providers like Orange Romania deliver ultra-broadband services everywhere. Our work with this customer reinforces our strategy for deploying microwave technology to meet long-haul transport requirements for packet data."
Alcatel-Lucent said its 9500 MPR boosts the capacity of legacy TDM and new Ethernet traffic, and is compatible with 2G, 3G, and 4G services.
The network upgrade is scheduled to be completed during 2016. The contract also covers installation, commissioning, migration, deployment and maintenance services, the vendor stated, adding that network management will be handled by its 5620 Service Aware Manager.
Alcatel-Lucent also noted that Orange Romania's 4G network covers 70 per cent of the country's population. A high-speed 300 Mbps service is available in six major cities in the country, and also covers capital Bucharest's metro rail network.
For more:
- see this Alcatel-Lucent announcement
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