NSN outlines LTE rollout plans for O2 trial network

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) has announced its deployment plans for Telefonica O2 Germany’s pilot Long Term Evolution (LTE) in Halle. The vendor will deploy the complete LTE overlay network comprising Flexi Multiradio Base Stations and the Enhanced Packet Core (EPC) nodes Flexi NG and Flexi NS, and will also manage and operate the network. The network will provide broadband capacity and coverage in Halle and its suburb Teutschenthal, an area where there is currently limited broadband access. Rollout of the trial networks will commence in September and will reuse existing base station sites for the network upgrade. The Halle network will operate in the 2.6GHz band, while the LTE trial in Teutschenthal will operate in the so-called ‘digital dividend’ 800MHz band; both networks are expected to go into pre-commercial operation by the end of the year. As previously reported by CommsUpdate, late last month Telefonica O2 announced plans to deploy two LTE networks in the cities of Munich and Halle by the end of the year. The Spanish company partnered with Chinese equipment vendor Huawei for the rollout of the network in Munich and the rural area of Ebersberg, located east of Munich. Telefonica O2 secured two paired 5MHz blocks in the 800MHz band for EUR1.212 billion (USD1.6 billion), as well as four blocks of spectrum in the 2.6GHz band, in the Federal Network Agency’s (FNA’s) spectrum auction, which concluded in May 2010.