Sonofon, the second largest mobile operator in Denmark by subscribers, is upgrading its existing W-CDMA 3G network with high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) technology from Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), supporting data transmission speeds of up to 3.6Mbps. A press release says that the HSDPA launch is a logical expansion of Sonofon’s existing service offering and is easily installed on top of Sonofon’s present infrastructure, also built by NSN. ‘Nokia Siemens Networks and Sonofon have shared a very long relationship,’ said Sonofon spokesman Jesper Hansen. ‘The major advantage for us in selecting [HSDPA from NSN] was the ease at which our network could provide greater speed…[It only requires] a simple software [upgrade].’
Sonofon will initially launch HSDPA services in the four major cities of Copenhagen, Aarhus, Aalborg and Odense, where subscribers will be able to enjoy speeds of up to 1.5Mbps initially. The upgrades have already begun.
Sonofon is part of Norwegian group Telenor’s Danish operations, comprising Sonofon, Cybercity, CBB and Tele2 Denmark. All companies are combined under one umbrella with a common management and strategy and are owned entirely by Telenor. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, Sonofon had 1.667 million mobile subscribers at the end of September 2007, giving it roughly a quarter of the market and placing it second behind Mobile Nordic, the cellular arm of incumbent telco TDC.