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O2 to upgrade southern UK network
Wider bands, wider technologies
Nokia Siemens Networks has landed a contract to upgrade the O2 network covering the south of England, dropping in base stations capable of working across frequencies and technologies.
The deal, financial details of which aren't being released, will see Flexi Multiradio Base Stations deployed across the south, allowing O2 to use a wider range of frequencies and provide a software upgrade to Long Term Evolution (4G). This will hopefully future-proof the network.
NSN already supplies O2's existing network, and has enabled O2 to start running 3G services in its 2G spectrum (UMTS900) rather faster than expected. Now O2 wants to be ready to deploy LTE at a moment's notice - to the south of England anyway. Those base stations will be tied into O2's new network status service too, so punters should be able to see what's working where.
The NSN kit is largely software defined, making it very flexible and probably able to fill whatever spectrum the operator chooses to purchase in next year's digital dividend mega auction. ®