The German LTE roadmap has moved another step forward with the announcement from Telefónica O2 that it has selected Huawei as a supplier for its German LTE network.
The deal calls for the Chinese equipment vendor to deploy LTE infrastructure using LTE base stations (eNodeBs) in the southern and western regions of Germany based upon Huawei's SingleRAN platform. Of note, the company has been asked to provide a complete core network based on its Evolved Packet Core solution for all of Germany.
Telefónica O2 said, as reported by Telecompaper, that the installation would also serve as a reference project for LTE operating in the 800MHz and 2.6GHz spectrum for other markets of the Telefónica Group. The operators is aiming to provide LTE coverage to around 1,500 locations in Germany by the end of this year. In addition, it will supply LTE CPE routers for customers wanting to access the service.
While no commercial launch date for LTE has been announced by O2 Germany, the company did start consumer trials of LTE in four locations around Munich in November that were designed to run for six months.
O2 Germany also awarded Huawei an additional contract to extend the operator's HSPA+ network to support download speeds of 21Mbps.
For more:
- see this Telecompaper article (sub. req.)
- see this Telegeography article
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