US-based equipment supplier Cisco has announced that Hungary’s largest mobile operator by subscribers, Magyar Telekom-controlled T-Mobile Hungary, is deploying a 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) multimedia services platform based on Cisco-supplied products. T-Mobile Hungary launched LTE commercially on 1 January 2012 and will use the new converged IP architecture to strengthen its next generation mobile internet network across the country. Magyar Telekom, part of Germany’s Deutsche Telekom Group, selected the Cisco ASR 5000 Series Mobile Multimedia Core, Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers, and Cisco ME 3800X Series Carrier Ethernet Switch Routers to help transform the cellco’s network for the delivery of mobile video, social networking and high speed internet browsing.
T-Mobile Hungary embarked on a large-scale network modernisation programme in May 2011, and in preparation for the LTE launch, between October-December 2011 tested the new 4G network using ‘several hundred consumers, SMEs and enterprise customers’. Its LTE network currently covers 40% of the population in Budapest, with all areas of the capital slated for coverage by the end of 2012.